The ocean is both the supermarket and the sewer of the world. It receives all kinds of pollutants, from plastic to heavy metals, along with residential and industrial waste. This, combined with global warming, compromises the balance of the seas and, with it, of the planet.
Nobody can justify all the ignorance and carelessness with the Amazon and other Brazilian territories with a lack of access to information. Brazil’s 8.5 million km² are scanned by MapBiomas, a monumental collection of maps, statistics and analytical tools.
Brazil nuts production breaks records, but traditional peoples in the Amazon have a history not only of gathering but also of agriculture. “Indigenous peoples have developed millenary techniques for the production of fertile, ‘fertilized’ black earth, with which they ‘managed’ large areas of forest with edible plants”, claims the new book “Amazon in the 21st Century”.
For people with less familiarity with the subject, the importance of biodiversity is not very clear, other than simply a kind of compassion for an animal that disappears, a certain melancholy for the loss without return. But biodiversity has other impacts, for example on the economy and human health.
Brazil could be a major exporter of farm-raised fish, such as pirarucu, which puts up weight faster than cattle, and tambaqui, originally from the Amazon but exported by China. And use new technologies to explore oil, gold and other minerals from the rich subsoil of the Amazon without destroying the forest or polluting its rivers.
Social entrepreneur Caetano Scannavino conveyed to members of the European Parliament the view that the rules being debated in Europe to prevent the importation of Brazilian products associated with deforestation are necessary to separate good agribusiness from bad, which he and others dub “ogrebusiness”.
Luciene Kaxinawá’s trajectory parallels that of Brazil. Her indigenous identity was hidden from her. Luciene matured discovering this identity. It is up to the country to do the same. Which does not mean giving up the rest.
The dilemma between prosperity and preservation is false. Reforestation experiences, as well as the development of new fibers in the Amazon for the fashion industry, generate income, jobs and taxes while maintaining and expanding the forest.
Earth News Terra proposes a paradigm shift: the 30 million Brazilians who live in the Amazon and their desire for prosperity are not a problem. They are the solution, as long as we know how to take advantage of their knowledge of the forest and explore it with intelligence.
Documentary filmmaker and photographer Adriano Gambarini, who has been for almost 30 days on expeditions in the Amazon, where he has worked for 27 years, describes his feelings and perceptions in the face of the murders of Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips. His article is pure poetry, a declaration of love for the Amazon and a message of hope.
Sea Shepherd
Adriano Gambarini
Courtesy/Coopaflora
Adriano Gambarini
Adriano Gambarini
Luciene Kaxinawá