IBIRAMA-LA KLÃNÕ INDIGENOUS TERRITORY, Brazil — Zág, pronounced “zã,” is the Xokleng word for the Brazilian pine. This tree species, Araucaria angustifolia, is typical of the Atlantic Forest that runs along Brazil’s south and southeastern coast, and has been evolving on the planet for about 200 million years. Each female tree produces dozens of cones, which in turn carry hundreds of seeds. Known in Brazil as pinhão, the Brazilian pine seed is a nut eaten by at least 22 animal species as well as humans, who rely on it for both nutrition and income. For some Indigenous peoples, however, it means more than food. It’s part of their culture, history, and origin myths. That’s the case for the Xokleng people, also known as the Laklãnõ, in what is today Santa Catarina state. In their villages, people are even named after the tree. “Brazilian pines are sacred to us,” says Carl Gakran, executive director of the Zág Institute. “You can’t tell the story of our people without speaking of them. Our creation myth says the protective animal was made from that tree, so it appears in the very first story.” Carl decided to do something for the pines in 2016, after learning that the species was critically endangered as a result of deforestation, urban expansion, and logging. Currently, Brazilian pine forests are estimated to cover less than 3% of their original range, which once stretched across much of the states of Paraná, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul, with small patches…This article was originally published on Mongabay

SÃO SEBASTIÃO, Brazil — In front of the house where she has lived for decades, Cosma da Silva points to nearby homes in her Itatinga neighborhood and lists a string of cancer cases. “There’s a woman with cancer over there. Another one lives in that building. And yet another one there [points at the place]. People in this area only die of cancer.” She sees illness as an integral part of the neighborhood’s landscape and includes her own family in the tally. Her husband Paulo José da Silva died at age 51 from a brain tumor. Cosma herself recently underwent surgery to remove a nodule. As she deals with the consequences of the treatment — a wound that burns and itches on the side of her chest — she continues to observe several sick relatives, neighbors and acquaintances. The connection between these cases and the environmental contamination that has marked Itatinga’s history has never been proven or investigated the way residents expected it to be. From the 1970s to the 1980s, part of the neighborhood was used for the disposal of oily sludge associated with oil exploration. Years later, homes were built on the land. Environmental investigations by public agencies found contaminants in the soil and groundwater. For almost 20 years, documents from the São Paulo State Environmental Company (CETESB), the State Prosecution Service (MPE), the Federal Prosecution Service (MPF) and Petrobras itself — the Brazilian state-controlled oil company, which the investigations accused of being responsible for the disposal — pointed to toxic substances…This article was originally published on Mongabay