10 Sep WITNESS Backs Indigenous Youth in Brazil to Document and Defend Their Territories Through Visual Investigations

Brazil is the fourth deadliest country in the world for environmental defenders, according to Global Witness’s most recent report. Despite these threats, Indigenous communities across the country continue to fight for their rights, increasingly up against coordinated disinformation campaigns designed to discredit the realities they face. In this environment, visual evidence has become an essential tool of resistance. In 2026, WITNESS supported 30 young Indigenous people in Brazil through REVIDE (Video School for the Defense of Territories), a training program in audiovisual and digital technologies for Indigenous communities in the North and Northeast of the country. REVIDE means “to fight back” in Portuguese, and that is precisely our focus: equipping Indigenous communities with the tools they need to effectively defend their territories. The program supports communities in documenting environmental and human rights violations and using audiovisual evidence for advocacy, accountability, climate justice and reparation. REVIDE participants documented threats including illegal soy and cattle production, logging, illegal mining that contaminates rivers, and violence and persecution against those defending their lands. On territories that have not yet been demarcated, participants also documented occupation by large agribusiness companies, including transnational corporations such as Cargill, affecting artisanal fishing and communities’ ability to move freely