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"Ignorance Is Hurting the Amazon" |
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By Mario Osava*
Brazilian
activist Tarcisio Feitosa da Silva, a winner of the Goldman Environmental
Prize -- known widely as the "Green Nobel" -- spoke with Tierramérica
about his efforts to protect the Amazon.
RIO DE JANEIRO - Ignorance about the problems
afflicting the Brazilian Amazon leads to policies based on erroneous
views, says Tarcisio Feitosa da Silva, a winner of the 2006 Goldman
Environmental Prize for his defense of a series of Amazon reserves
that comprise the world's largest tropical ecological corridor.
Violence and environmental crimes that go unpunished, populations
abandoned to poverty, the fraudulent appropriate of public lands,
and widespread deforestation are some of the main problems affecting
this region.
The 125,000-dollar Goldman Prize recognizes outstanding environmental
actions in high-risk areas, and is granted annually to activists
representing the world's six inhabited regions. Feitosa won the
award for South and Central America.
The 35-year-old activist is a member of the Catholic Pastoral Lands
Commission, working to to defend peasant farmers, and of the Movement
for the Development of the Trans-Amazon and the Xingú, a network
of 114 non-governmental organizations.
Minutes after returning from the United States, where on Apr. 24
he received his award at a gala ceremony, Feitosa spoke with Tierramérica
by phone. He had returned to Altamira, a city of 85,000 people on
the banks of the Xingú River, in the northern Amazon, where he grew
up and continues to live with his wife and two children -- despite
the death threats against him.
TIERRAMERICA: How did your vocation for environmental activism come
about?
FEITOSA: It was linked to the ecclesial base communities (associated
with Liberation Theology). When I was 15 or 16 they invited me to
work with indigenous peoples. That awakened my interest in the forest
tribes and a critical understanding of the environmental problems
in the Amazonian agricultural area, which tempts the appetite of
those who want to replace the forests with livestock, soybeans and
lumber. My commitment to the communities is inspired by the teachings
and practices of bishop Erwin Krautler (who spent more than 30 years
in Xingú) and other local human rights activists.
- What is the Goldman Prize recognizing in your case?
- The history of the struggle of the social movement in the Xingú
basin. We are creating the world's largest ecological corridor,
with a mosaic of 42 areas of integral conservation, indigenous lands,
and sustainable development units, totaling 282,489 square kilometers
(the equivalent area of Costa Rica, Honduras and Nicaragua combined).
In that zone we face several threats: agribusiness, illegal takeover
of public lands, and violence in the (northern) state of Pará. In
the past decade, there were 722 assassinations there for agrarian
conflicts, practically without punishment for the assassins.
- The guilty verdicts for the Feb. 12, 2005 murder in Pará of U.S.
nun Dorothy Stang, didn't that change the situation?
- Almost nothing changed. There were spectacular measures, with
the presence of the government and the army, but no follow-up. The
Stang case was an exception. Many assassinations occurred several
years ago and there have been no trials, and the crimes continue.
The judiciary would have to set an example, but it doesn't punish
the assassins and doesn't enforce many fines for environmental crimes.
The level of crime in Pará is enormous.
- How does the Goldman Prize contribute to resolving some of these
issues?
- It generates visibility for the region, it attracts the media,
it favors the fight against violence, and it improves knowledge
about the local reality.
- The world knows about the Amazon region in terms of deforestation
and violence. But what do you consider the area's greatest problem?
- It's the ignorance about the diversity of nature and society,
which includes indigenous peoples, river peoples, farming families,
fisherfolk. The Amazon can't be known seeing it only by satellite.
The government, with a focus on Brazil's south and southeast, approves
budgets with resources for cultivation when our farmers are already
harvesting. It's easier to obtain credits for livestock, soybeans
and rice than it is for local products, like cashews, açaí (a palm
fruit of the region) and fish. Money is made available for destroying
the forests but not for keeping them intact. Pará is a major producer
of energy, but its people continue to live in misery. I studied
until university by the light of an oil lamp, living 400 kilometers
from the gigantic Tucuruí hydroelectric dam, whose electricity reached
the nearby cities just four years ago, but doesn't yet reach the
rural communities.
- Is there hope for improvement?
- We are staking our bets on local development with the forests
kept intact. We have a legislative project for development and,
after 30 years of neglect, there are signs of some government attention.
We obtained an electrical transmission line from Tucuruí and the
Trans-Amazon highway has been open for a year, maintained by the
government. These are advances.
* Mario Osava is an IPS correspondent.
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