Alessandra is an indigenous leader and Brazilian environmental activist from the Munduruku ethnic group, representing 14.000 people living around the Tapajos river in the Amazon basin.
Her main work is defending the demarcation of indigenous territory and denouncing the illegal exploitation and activities of the mining, logging and soybean industries.
Deforestation in the Amazon is threatening the climate on Earth. So far 17% of Amazon forests have been wholly lost, and an additional 17% are degraded.
There are signals that some areas of the Amazon forest, due to fragmentation, forest fires and degradation, are becoming a net source of carbon dioxide. From 2018 to 2021 deforestation linked to the mining industry rose by 62%.
With the support of the of the Indigenous People of Brazil (APIB) and Amazon Watch, Alessandra wrote a letter to the Anglo American multinational company asking to withdraw mining permits in the land of indigenous people. These permits were granted without the consensus of Indigenous people, required by the Brazilian Constitution. The company has now canceled 27 mining research projects in the indigenous land.
Alessandra has fought against a big hydropower dam, the São Luiz de Tapajòs , that was threatening her village. The Tapajós is a clear-water river and the fifth largest tributary of the Amazon. At the moment the development of São Luis do Tapajós dam has been halted.
Korap has received death threats and had her house invaded and robbed for her activism. In 2019, a group of federal deputies from Germany asked the Brazilian government to provide her protection.
In 2023 she won the Goldman Award, the equivalent Nobel prize for the environment.
Climate Hero