A conflict over cattle in Brazil’s Amazon highlights tensions for Indigenous peoples

By Gabriela Sá Pessoa FORMOSO DO ARAGUAIA, Brazil (AP) — On a vast island in northern Brazil, an unusual debate about cattle and conservation is taking place. Federal authorities last year ordered the removal of herds from protected Indigenous territory on the world’s largest river island, Bananal Island. They argued the land was reserved for Indigenous peoples and conservation, and that the herds kept there by outside ranchers were illegal and contributed to habitat degradation. To comply with the order, wranglers drove more than 100,000 cattle from the island when the rivers were low enough.…