NOTE: This book, The Amazonia That We Do Not Know, intended always for free distribution, was written originally in Brazilian Portuguese by Milton Claro for the Brazilian Servites and the Servite Order and is translated here by Fr. Dennis Kriz, OSM
Forward
The
sheer size of the Amazon region fools our senses. We are used to seeing her as an immense gift
of nature, a tourist paradise, which is now threatened with dismemberment by
means of fire and chainsaws. We talk
about the level of deforestation, we watch with horror the smoke trails from
the forest fires clearly registered on satellite photos, we calculate how many
tons of carbon dioxide the forest absorbs each day to help alleviate the green
house effect – and often it escapes us, that among this scenery walk people, of
flesh and bone, who suffer for the sins from which the forest is a victim.
This
year in which the Campaign for Brotherhood is promoting an effort to reach out
to our brothers and sisters living in the Amazon region, it’s with great joy
that I welcome the publication of this book which presents the problems of the
rain forest from the point of view of its inhabitants. They are heroes, be they indigenous people, seringueiros (rubber-tappers), ribeirinhos (river dwellers), or
settlers who show us the wounded Amazon as they make their quiet petitions for
aid.
May
the message of this book help contribute to a better understanding of the
problems and concerns of these people, producing concrete initiatives which
allow for the full exercise of their rights within a forest which is fully
respected.
Salvador, 1 April 2007, Palm Sunday
Most Reverend Geraldo Majella
Agnelo
Cardinal Archbishop of Salvador
President of the C.N.B.B.
Forward
This
book presents in a singular, if rough, way the vision of the inhabitants of the
forest, their aspirations, their desire to find the difficult point of
equilibrium between their historical role as guardians of the forest – and of
all the life that it contains – and the forces that bring to the amazonian the
benefits of modern life and of a democratic state governed by the rule of law,
principally in the form of better health care and education as well as a
minimal level of material comfort. We
share all the anxieties facing the amazonian inhabitants and we join them in
their struggles.
The
time has arrived for a great movement to radically change the paradigm used to
develop the Amazon region over the last 40 years, which has already shown its
limitations in not producing real benefits for the vast majority for the vast
majority of its inhabitants even at an unsustainable environmental cost. Now is the time to create conditions for the
birth of a new forest economy that gives economic value to the unique
bio-diversity of the Amazon region.
This
new model must be based on a better understanding of what is already known and
of what still awaits discovery, in a careful intersection between traditional
knowledge and the best that science and technology can offer. Brazilian society has to understand that it
must massively invest in scientific study of the Amazon in order to translate
the wealth present in its bio-diversity into economic opportunities for its
people, who keep the forest standing, that is, search for alternatives that
both invigorate the economy and are environmentally sustainable.
The
eventual success of a new paradigm for the development of the Amazon region
will not happen without a strong cultural revival of the values of the
amazonian region’s inhabitants and their ties to the forest. This book makes an important contribution to
the better understanding of these values.
Carlos A Nobre
Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais –
INPE
President of the Programa Internacional da
Biosfera-Atmosfera (IGBP) and
the author of the Quarto Relatório de Avaliação
do IPCC May, 2007
Why do we have to hate and
despise each other? There’s enough space
in this world for everyone. The earth,
which is rich and beautiful, can provide for all our needs. The road of life can lead us to freedom and
beauty or it can lead us estray...
Our experiences make us
skeptics; our intelligence makes us callous and cruel. We think too much and feel too little. What we need more than knowledge is empathy
and tenderness ... without these virtues, life will be violent and all will be
lost.
– Charlie Chaplin
I am a descendent of the
Yanomami people. I live in the forest
where my ancestors lived and I don’t tell the whites that I discovered the
forest. I don’t say, “I discovered this
land because my eyes fell upon it, and so now it is mine.” It has existed since before time, and before
me. I don’t say, “I discovered the heavens!” Neither do I say, “I discovered the fishes, I
discovered game.”
These always been there since
the beginning of time.
– Davi Kopenawa Yanomami
Introduction
The
Amazon is inhabited by people of great value about whom the rest of Brazil knows
very little, and that which they do know about them, they do not know
well. Its inhabitants, called
amazonians, can be thought of as belonging to one of four principal groups: the
indigenous people, the colonos
(settlers), quilombolas (the
descendants of escaped slaves), and migrants.
The colonos can be divided
into two subgroups: the seringueiros
(rubber tappers) and ribierinhos (the
people living along the rivers).
Despite
this rich diversity in their origins, all these groups have one trait in common:
their struggle to preserve the forest.
And it’s not because the forest is beautiful, but rather because the
life of everyone of them is tied to the forest, and the forest guarantees them
an existence. They know that they need
the forest in order to live well and find happiness in their lives.
The
Brazilian Amazon region contains 23 million inhabitants in an area of 5.2
million km2
(2.0 million sq.miles), a little
more than 4 people/km2 (1.6 people/sq.mile) and is the least
inhabited part of Brazil. The world wishes only that every amazonian
take care of 22 hectacres of forest in order to preserve the forest for the
benefit of our planeet’s 6 ½ billion inhabitants.
A
simple task? It would not be that
difficult if, along with taking care of the forest, they did not need to defend
it against the uncontrolled exploitation of the soil, the wood, the plants and
other mineral resources.
Involved
in this struggle are also the governments of the states that form the Amazon as
well as innumerable federal government agencies and non-govermental agencies
(NGOs). And it’s not enough. Amazonia needs every Brazilian to feel
personally responsible for its preservation and that every Brazilian be willing
to make his/her contribution, be they members of the legislature, government or
judiciary, in their roles of legislating, governing and adjudicating, be they
voters, using their ballots to force the issue with their elected officials.
Moreover,
life in the Amazon has its stories, which paint a picture of a people which is
happy, one which has a great love for nature and feels instinctively a duty to
help protect the environment.
The
stories that we present here are inspired by letters and interviews, all
authentic in their essence, collected with the help of the Servants of Mary –
missionaries who perform their marvelous work in Acre.
We
hope that this work may contribute in some way to improve the reader’s
understanding of these beloved brothers and sisters of ours.
With
the odds stacked against them in their fight in defense of the forest, the
inhabitants of the Amazon need all the help that that you can give. And that’s not all. Scientists from across the world have already
alarmingly concluded that the fight to save Amazonia is but an item in a larger
picture: life across the whole planet is being threatened by man’s abusive and
indiscriminate exploitation of our natural resources – aggravating and
violating a delicate ecological equilibrium, whose evolution Nature had wisely
administered for hundreds of millions of years.
But
why should one care?
Milton Claro, the Author
February-March 2007.
