From Global Commodities to Local Impacts: Environmental Rights in Brazil

As the world faces escalating climate extremes and geopolitical instability, food and fuel supply chains are becoming increasingly central to political and economic agendas. Brazil continues to play a pivotal role in global commodity markets, serving as an important supplier of raw materials. Yet the socio-environmental impacts of these industries – particularly on Indigenous peoples, traditional communities, and human and environmental defenders in biodiversity-rich countries – often remain invisible in global trade and investment discussions.

This panel will bring together voices from the Brazilian Amazon, whose territories are heavily affected by these issues. The event will also present the Observatório Socioambiental platform, a public transparency tool that compiles data on human rights violations, deforestation, and the expansion of large-scale agriculture, strengthening public oversight and accountability across commodity supply chains. By connecting local realities in Brazil with international policy and finance debates, the discussion aims to foster dialogue on the responsibilities of governments, investors, and companies in advancing social and environmental justice.

Speakers:

• Claudelice Silva dos Santos, Instituto Zé Claudio & Maria
• Gabriela Pyãko, a young Ashaninka woman from Apiwtxa, Acre
• Professor Octávio Ferraz, King’s College London
• Dr Vivian Ribeiro, Diversa/Socioenvironmental Observatory
• Dr Grace Iara Souza, The Alliance for the Amazon and Beyond (AAB)

Claudelice da Silva Santos is a human rights defender from Pará in the Brazilian Amazon, a law graduate, Human Rights Counsellor for the state of Pará, and Executive Coordinator of the Zé Claudio & Maria Institute. She became internationally recognised after leading the fight for justice following the 2011 murder of her brother José Claudio Ribeiro dos Santos and Maria do Espírito Santo, who were killed after denouncing illegal logging and land grabbing. Since then, she has continued to expose socio-environmental violations and defend the rights of forest communities facing violence linked to extractive and commodity frontiers. Her advocacy has been recognised through nominations, including the 2019 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought and the 2023 Tulip Award.

Gabriela Shina Piyâko Araújo is a young Ashaninka leader from the village of Apiwtxa, on the Amônia River in Acre, in the Brazilian Amazon. A student of Environmental Studies at the Federal Institute of Acre (IFAC). She represents a new generation committed to defending Indigenous territory, culture, and self-determination. As part of the Piyãko family, long known for protecting Ashaninka lands and ways of life across the Brazil–Peru border, Gabriela brings an intergenerational perspective on resistance, stewardship, and the future of Indigenous leadership in the Amazon.

Professor Octávio Ferraz is a law professor and practitioner specialising in human rights at the intersection of law, inequality, and the triple environmental crisis. He is a founding member of the Transnational Legal Coalition, which works with Amazonian communities to develop legal strategies for holding transnational actors accountable for environmental harm and human rights abuses. His work connects local realities in the Amazon with wider debates on corporate responsibility, due diligence, and access to justice in global supply chains.

Dr Vivian Ribeiro is Principal Consultant and Co-Founder of Diversa, where she works at the intersection of data, technology, and sustainability in agricultural commodity supply chains. With a PhD in Ecology and over a decade of experience, she specialises in tracing the social and environmental impacts of high-impact commodities such as beef, soy, palm oil, coffee, and cocoa. She co-created the Observatório Socioambiental, a public platform that brings together data on human rights violations, commodity production, and deforestation to strengthen transparency, due diligence, and public accountability.

Dr Grace Iara Souza is the Lead convener of The Alliance for the Amazon and Beyond (AAB) at The Gaia Foundation and the Latin America Partner Relations Manager at Synchronicity Earth. With a background spanning academia, philanthropy, and Brazil’s financial and foreign trade sectors, she works to connect grassroots socio-environmental concerns with international networks, funders, and policy spaces. Her research and practice focus on political ecology, cross-sector collaboration, and strengthening alliances for human rights, environmental justice, and accountability across global commodity systems.

Co-produced by The Alliance for the Amazon & Beyond (AAB) and The Socioenvironmental Observatory

With support from: The Gaia Foundation, Global Canopy, Flourishing Diversity, The Dickson Poon School of Law-KCL.