Articles by Peter Speetjens

Peter Speetjens is a Dutch journalist. Following his law studies in Rotterdam, he spent some 20 years in the Middle East and India, before moving to Brazil in 2016. Based in São Paolo he mainly writes about politics and the environment. His work has appeared in numerous Dutch and English language publications, including MO Magazine, Middle East Eye, Trouw, NRC and De Groene Amsterdammer. He has a soft spot for history, loves photography and in 2004 coauthored the documentary 2000 Terrorists.

‘Many features of the Amazon are man-made’: Q&A with archaeologist Eduardo Neves

by Peter Speetjens 3 May 2023

Neves has studied human occupation of the Amazon for 30 years and found evidence of rice, manioc and palm tree cultivation dating back thousands of years.

On 22 June 2022 the farmers protest started in the Netherlands. Tractors from all over the country drove to Stroe. This picture was taken along the A27 near Houten, just in front of the Lunetten interchange. Image by Frank Magdelyns from Pixabay.

For Dutch farming crisis, agroforestry offers solutions: Q&A with Lennart Fuchs & Marc Buiter

by Peter Speetjens 21 March 2023

Last year, farmer protests erupted throughout the Netherlands, riding a wave of rural anger at government plans to drastically halve nitrogen emissions by downsizing and closing farms. This quickly swept…

U.N. report calls for the ban of mercury trade and its use in gold mining

by Peter Speetjens 24 November 2022

Artisanal gold mining is driving the global demand for mercury, with 2,058 metric tons of the toxic metal contaminating water, land and air every year, according to a recent report…

Christina Haverkamp (center), founder of the German NGO Hilfe Yanomami, with Indigenous children. The activist has been going to Brazil since the 1990s and says wildcat miners are disrupting the life of the Yanomami people. Image courtesy of Hilfe Yanomami.

At 30, Brazil’s Yanomami reserve is beset by mining, malaria and mercury

by Peter Speetjens 9 June 2022

Thirty years ago, Brazil issued a decree officially recognizing the ancestral land of the Yanomami people as an Indigenous territory. The new designation made the area, located deep in the…

‘Amazônia must live on’: Photographer Sebastião Salgado returns home with his new book

by Peter Speetjens 20 May 2021

Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado traveled the Amazon for six years to capture nature and the people of the world’s largest rainforest, now depicted in his new book, Amazônia.

Long entrenched Brazilian military mindset is key to Amazon policy: Expert

by Peter Speetjens 26 October 2020

Jair Bolsonaro and 6,000 of his appointees come from Brazil’s military, which historically sees Amazon infrastructure and development as vital to national security and to averting foreign invasion: Analysis.

Life as an Amazon activist: ‘I don’t want to be the next Dorothy Stang’

by Peter Speetjens 13 July 2020

Juma Xipaya, a young indigenous woman, medical student and fierce activist, fought the Belo Monte dam and exposed corruption; now she lives in daily terror of two thugs in a white pickup.

Kafka in the Amazon: Volunteer forest fire fighter charged with arson still in limbo

by Peter Speetjens 20 May 2020

Four Alter do Châo volunteer firefighters were charged last year with setting Amazon fires; the police lack evidence, while locals say the real suspects — landgrabbers — are likely still on the loose.