Who’s Who in Green: Chico Mendes

Hailed as an environmental hero since the 80’s, Chico Mendes fought a dramatic battle against the burning and logging of the Brazilian rainforest and ultimately gave his life for the cause.  He was born into a rubber tapping family in 1944.  Rubber tapping is a harmless method of extracting sap from rubber trees, and it’s been practiced in the Amazon for decades.  Mendes himself became a rubber tapper as an adult, and this sustainable agriculture system is what unwittingly led him into the world of environmental activism.

While the rubber tappers sought to extract resources from the Amazon without harming it, other industries weren’t so keen on keeping the trees standing.  Miners and cattle farmers wanted to tear down the forests so they could replace it with strip mines and pasture, which make a far bigger profit.  The rubber tappers weren’t going to give up without a fight, though – it was their only way to feed their families, and they felt tied to the trees.  So they would march down the logging trails, disarming the guards and attempting to convince the ranchers’ workers to stop the destruction.

It was tough work, and Mendes saw a friend and ally assassinated in 1980 for standing up to the ranchers. It was then that Mendes decided to take his battle higher up, advocating for the idea of creating forest reserves that could be managed by traditional communities and sustainably harvesting goods like rubber and Brazil nuts. He then founded the Xapuri Rural Worker’s Union, becoming its president.  The union sought to hold their ground against the ranchers, and enjoyed some successes over the years. Mendes taught the surprisingly large numbers of rubber tappers who came to the union meetings about deforestation, cattle ranching and the threat to their livelihoods.

It was at this time that Mendes captured the attention of the international environmental movement.  Mendes and the Xapuri Rural Worker’s Union aligned themselves with environmentalism and in 1985, Mendes was the subject of a documentary by an English filmmaker.

In 1987 Mendes became renowned for his stewardship of the Amazon, flying at the request of the National Wildlife Federation and the Environmental Defense to Washington D.C. to convince the Inter-American Development Bank to consider the preservation of the forest and its inhabitants while carrying out their road project.  This success led to two international environmental awards.

Mendes began his campaign to stop logger Alves de Silva from logging an area that was planned for a reserve in 1988.  It was a struggle, but he managed to stop the planned deforestation so the reserve could be created.  He also gained a warrant for de Silva’s arrest for a  murder committed in another state, but the warrant was never acted upon by police.

Months later, a week after his 44th birthday, Chico Mendes was assassinated at his home in Xapuri.  Alves de Silva and his son, Darli, were sentenced to 19 years in prison for their part in the killing.

The sensational nature of Mendes death only served to bring his cause even more attention, and the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve was created in the area where he lived, in his honor.  Mendes has since been the subject of several plays, movies and songs and will always be remembered for the spirited activism that highlighted the plight of his homeland.

Chico Mendes’ Green Score: Score: 65,342

Link [Global 500]
Photo credit: American.edu + Encarta

Brazil Government Threatens Uncontacted Amazon Tribe with a Highway

Last week, the Brazilian government released amazing photographs of one of the last uncontacted tribes in the Amazon. They stated that the reason for releasing the photos was to alert the world to threats to these native people – the same threats that have made other previously secluded tribes virtually unrecognizable, they’ve become so alarmingly enmeshed in modern life. And those are the lucky ones. Many tribes have been displaced and killed by unscrupulous loggers, miners and other opportunists who sought something valuable within the tribe’s land.

From MSNBC:

“We put the photos out because if things continue the way they are going, these people are going to disappear,” said Jose Carlos Meirelles, who coordinates government efforts to protect four “uncontacted” tribes for Brazil’s National Indian Foundation.

The (not so) funny thing is, the Brazilian government is saying one thing and doing another. A highway currently in the works would bring more than unwanted noise to these uncontacted tribes. They would likely bring outsiders – and with them, all of the ills of modern society.

The Belfast Telegraph has it:

The 711-mile Trans-Oceanic Highway, which will eventually link the Amazon river ports of Brazil with the Pacific ones of Peru, is the biggest threat to the indigenous peoples – uncontacted or otherwise – in that part of South America, says John Hemming, celebrated expert on Brazilian peoples and author of many books, among them the acclaimed Tree of Rivers. “The bad news,” he says, “is that the Chinese have persuaded Brazil and Peru to cut a road through this region, and it’s blazing ahead. In theory, it should not affect these peoples, and it won’t go slap through their land. But when it’s built, the settlers will come pouring in.” And, as he points out, one main road grows spurs and side roads, allowing those who do directly threaten the tribes – illegal loggers and mineral prospectors – far better access to the uncharted areas than they have now.

Fabulous. Thank you, Brazilian government! Just what these people need – we’re going to save them from their ignorance and introduce them to a life of modern convenience! How lucky they are! Soon they’ll be able to shop at El Bath y Beyond and eat Big Macs for lunch. Onward with progress!

Link [MSNBC] + [Belfast Telegraph]

Opportunists See Dollar Signs as Food Prices Spur Rainforest Destruction

What do you know, chaos and suffering is causing some folks in the position of power to take advantage of the situation. Will wonders never cease?

As people are starting to get worried about the future of our food sources, farmers in Brazil are getting excited about the prospect of making money by cutting down trees in the rainforest, burning the land and making way for pasture and crops.

Envirolink has it:

“At the very edge of the agricultural frontier, it’s very dynamic and that’s why you get statistics for deforestation that swing wildly from one year to the next,” said Roberto Cavalcanti of Conservation International.

“A small shift in food prices can have a big impact on whether it’s economical or not to move into the forest.”

The governor of Mato Grosso, one of Brazil’s biggest farming states, last week advocated more deforestation as a solution to the sharp rises in staples such as rice that are threatening to push millions of people into hunger.

“There is no way to produce more food without occupying more land and taking down more trees,” Blairo Maggi, also Brazil’s largest soybean producer and widely known as the “King of Soy”, told the Folha news agency.

This seems like a really stupid move… at the first sign of a food crisis, we start moving in on the rainforests, which we’ve been trying to protect for decades? Isn’t there a better way, people? I’m no expert, but in the times of climate change and worries over the future of the entire planet, cutting down trees in the rainforest appears to be a very bad idea.

Link [Envirolink]

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Amazing Photo: Mother Beaten While Trying to Stop Black Wall of Police Shields

Holy fuck.

An indigenous woman holds her child while trying to resist the advance of Amazonas state policemen who were expelling the woman and some 200 other members of the Landless Movement from a privately-owned tract of land on the outskirts of Manaus, in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon March 11, 2008. The landless peasants tried in vain to resist the eviction with bows and arrows against police using tear gas and trained dogs. REUTERS/Luiz Vasconcelos-A Critica/AE (BRAZIL)”.

Link [Reuters]