Brazil Sells Amazon’s Future: Oil Blocks Auctioned As Indigenous Guardians Plead To Save Rainforest

Brazil just auctioned off chunks of the Amazon to Big Oil. The country sold 34 oil blocks, raking in $180 million while protesters screamed outside a luxury hotel in Rio de Janeiro. Chevron, ExxonMobil, and China’s CNPC all grabbed pieces of the action.

The blocks sit dangerously close to Indigenous territories and the Amazon River mouth. Two are inland, right next to where Indigenous communities live. Nobody asked these communities what they thought. That’s a violation of their internationally recognized rights, but who’s counting? The auction violated ILO Convention 169, which requires consultation with Indigenous peoples before decisions affecting their territories.

Nobody asked Indigenous communities living next to oil blocks what they thought – violating their internationally recognized rights.

Brazil’s National Oil Agency ran the whole show, claiming this massive oil expansion somehow fits with a “low-carbon energy shift.” Right. The government’s logic is simple: oil just beat soybeans as Brazil‘s biggest export. Money talks, and apparently it speaks louder than the protesters who showed up to denounce the sale.

Environmental groups are losing their minds over this. They’re warning about threats to ecosystems, water resources, and biodiversity. Indigenous leaders demanded consultation that never came. Meanwhile, IBAMA – Brazil’s environmental agency – rubber-stamped an emergency plan to start drilling near the Amazon River mouth. Emergency for who, exactly? With extinction rates 1,000 to 10,000 times higher than natural background levels, this development threatens already vulnerable species in one of Earth’s most biodiverse regions.

The timing is chef’s kiss perfect. Brazil’s hosting the UN’s first climate summit in the Amazon region soon. The climate talks are scheduled in Belem, right near the Amazon mouth where they just sold drilling rights. Nothing says “we care about climate change” like auctioning off rainforest territory to oil giants months before the big environmental conference.

Companies are salivating over these blocks because the geology looks like Guyana’s offshore basin, where massive oil discoveries have been made. Over $260 million in investments are already planned. The Amazon mouth is the new frontier, untapped and ready for exploitation.

Environmental licensing got fast-tracked under political pressure. Regulatory integrity? That’s cute. The auction included blocks overlapping Indigenous territories, amplifying tensions that were already at a boiling point.

Brazil’s government insists this is all compatible with their climate commitments. The Indigenous people living there, the environmentalists protesting in the streets, and basic common sense suggest otherwise. But hey, $180 million is $180 million. The Amazon’s future just went to the highest bidder.