Brazil's native communities protest controversial land-use bill

Last week, indigenous protesters in Brazil clashed with police as the country’s congress approved legislation that would limit protections for ancestral lands in the Amazon. The law would restrict the expansion of Indigenous land boundaries and potentially open them to farming and logging.

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- Indigenous protesters in Brazil clashed with police as the country's congress approved legislation that would limit protections for their ancestral lands in the Amazon. The law would restrict the expansion of Indigenous land boundaries and open it up to exploitation from illegal farmers and loggers, which has become an ever-increasing threat to Native communities.

The legislation states that land can only be considered protected if it has been occupied by Indigenous people since 1988, the year Brazil's current constitution was adopted. The bill received overwhelming support from politicians in the [INAUDIBLE], a group of lawmakers with interests in the country's powerful agribusiness and with large landholders. However, Brazil's Indigenous communities are fighting back, arguing that they have a right to all of their original territories since some groups were forced out of their lands during the military dictatorship that ended in 1985. The legislation will now be put to the Senate for a vote.