Geography in the News: Far Right Bolsonaro ousted in Brazilian election - this can only mean good things for the Amazon rainforest surely?

Brazil has taken a turn back to the left as former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva beat far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro in the presidential election.

Once the most popular politician in Brazil, the former president was unable to run in 2018 as he was in jail and banned after being found guilty of receiving a bribe from a Brazilian construction firm in return for contracts with Brazil's state oil company Petrobras (a nice link here to the role of TNCs in development, and the political influence that they have). Lula spent 580 days in jail before his conviction was overturned and he was able to return to politics - read more here: https://www.theguardian.com/wo...

It was a close run but divisive campaign, and an even closer result with Lula winning 50.9% of the vote.

The election campaign has been rife with accusations and misinformation from both camps. From high profile Satanist support for Lula, in which Bolonsaro's team claimed there would be a spiritual risk if Lula won, to claims of Bolonsaro supporting cannibalism as he had stated that he would be happy to eat human flesh in an interview with the New York Times in 2016. To put this into context Bolsonaro says he visited an indigenous community in the Amazon that was allegedly cooking a dead person, and that he had asked to watch. He claims that he was told that in order to watch he would have to to join in the meal. However, leaders of the Yanomami people, the indigenous group Bolsonaro was referencing, reject his claim and say that they do not practise cannibalism. Read more here - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/633...

The issue of deforestation has also featured heavily on both sides of the campaign, with both candidates claiming that they will do a better job at protecting the Amazon rainforest. Bolonsaro points out that during Lula's time in office much more of the forest was destroyed through deforestation, however during that time there was also a significant decrease in the rate of deforestation, which has was reversed during the last year of Bolonsaro's leadership as he pushed ahead with his policy of economic growth over environmental protection, ignoring the rights to the land of indigenous communities and ploughing money into mining, destroying the landscape but also harming the health of tribes people.

The world has been watching the election unfold, with many claiming that it was a vote for the future of the Amazon over anything else, and that politicians need to start taking protection of this vast rainforest more seriously before it gets to the point of no return. But it's a tricky balance - many feel that Brazil should be allowed to exploit its natural resources, particularly as there are around 23 million people living in the Amazon region needing to work. There are even some indigenous communities who agree as they profit from illegal mining, whether through being paid to grant access to the miners, mining themselves or working within the mine complexes as support staff. Read more here - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/wor...

Over the next few months it remains to be seen how Lula will start to repair the divide between the left and right across the country, and hopefully he will look carefully at his environmental policies regarding forest exploitation. However he will have his work cut out as lawmakers close to Bolonsaro won a majority in Congress, meaning that Lula will face stiff opposition to his policies in the legislative body when he takes office on 1 January.

Read the full article here - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/wor...