"In late September, the Environment Minister of Jair Bolsonaro's government, Joaquim Leite, expressed his intention to explore for oil in the Equatorial Margin, a coastal region that runs from Amapá to Rio Grande do Norte. 'It is certainly possible to do both things together: explore for oil and guarantee environmental protection,' Leite said. However, weeks earlier, the Federal Public Ministry in Pará and Amapá asked for the suspension of drilling by Petrobras in the basin of the mouth of the Amazon River, alleging that the activity, defined without prior consultation, would impact Indigenous, quilombola and riverside communities in the region.
The Equatorial Margin is considered the new frontier of oil exploration in the country. Over the past few years, Agência Pública has covered different types of threats to the Amazon, the Cerrado, and the populations that live in and preserve these biomes. We have also focused on violations of socio-environmental rights resulting from carbon-emitting activities. To investigate the new frontiers of oil exploration, we joined WWF-Brazil and launched the 16th edition of the Micro Grants."
