Company Sells Indigenous Land In Brazil As NFTs w/o Tribe's Knowledge, Because "Carbon Credits"

On their third day traveling on the Purus River Basin in southern Amazonas, InfoAmazonia reporters landed in the village of Penedo, on the banks of the Seruini Stream. For centuries, reports of persecution, massacres, torture, experiences of slavery and struggle for land have marked the history of the Apurinã Indigenous people, who took refuge in the forest, far away from their tormentors. Now, the threat is invisible: Their lands by the Seruini Stream are being sold on the internet as NFTs (non-fungible tokens) by Nemus.

The company said it acquired 41,000 hectares (101,313 acres) of an area that is part of the Lower Seruini/Lower Tumiã Indigenous land, whose demarcation process is underway. The area was divided into plots of different sizes, which have been sold on the internet since March 2022, with the promise of preserving the Amazon. Each NFT represents a portion of the territory, where Nemus still hopes to exploit 200,000 Brazil nut trees and generate carbon credits.

We were already getting off the boat when Chief Kaiaxi made himself visible on the other bank of the stream, wielding his bow and arrow and showing that he is always ready to react. But he was actually after food: “I’ve been trying to catch this tucunaré [peacock bass] for two days, man!” The chief said he was not aware that plots of land in his village had been sold on the internet, but he remembers that Nemus was in the area claiming to own the land. The company promised to develop projects with Indigenous people, creating jobs and promoting improvements in the villages, but always ignoring the recognition of their traditional territory.

In December 2022, the Federal Prosecution Service (MPF) recommended the suspension of Nemus’ project — a view shared by Brazil’s National Foundation of Indigenous Peoples (FUNAI). But none of the agencies knew the company had sold parts of the territory as NFTs, much less that they were still being traded, as InfoAmazonia found out.

EDIT

https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/company-sells-indigenous-land-in-amazonas-as-nfts-without-communitys-knowledge/