ABSTRACT
Like many other developing countries, Brazil has witnessed a substantial increase in the range and intensity of activities undertaken by non-governmental organisations. Of particular significance is the emergence of a strong advocacy role for both indigenous and foreign NGOs in support of local populations whose livelihoods are threatened by state-sponsored projects and programmes. In Brazil, the best-known of such protest movements internationally have tended to be in Amazonia, where sensitivity to environmental problems created by rainforest destruction has attracted global publicity. Notable examples include the struggles of the rubber-tappers’ organisation in Acre state against encroaching cattle-ranchers, campaigns by Amerindian groups such as the Yanomami and associated NGOs for the demarcation of their reserves, and the organised opposition mounted by the Kayapó and other tribes against the Xingú river hydroelectric complex (Branford and Glock 1985; Gross 1989; Revkin 1990; Goodman and Hall 1990; Hall 1991). Yet one of the most important and potentially significant cases of NGO success in lobbying on behalf of adversely-affected low-income groups has not been in Amazonia, but in North-East Brazil.
