Chief Almir Receiving Death Threats

Posted in Amazon,Chico Mendes,Chief Almir Surui,Deforestation by Kevin Kanarek on July 8th, 2011

In Brazil this past month, there has been a dramatic escalation of the threats against Chief Almir and other leaders who stand with him in opposing new changes to The Forest Code. Legislation currently being considered by the Brazilian government would reduce the protections in place against further destruction of the forest. These changes would greatly increase the amount of land that can be legally logged and may also provide retroactive amnesty for illegal logging.

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Earlier in July, Chief Almir traveled to the city of Brasilia with 11 other Surui leaders to meet with the National Indian Foundation (FUNAI), the branch of the Ministry of Justice responsible for Indigenous affairs. So far, the local FUNAI office in Cacoal has not responded to their requests for help and protection.  According to Almir, the most recent threats are from wildcat loggers (torieros) who view him and other Surui leaders as obstacles to their continued illegal logging of protected lands, including the Sete de Setembro extractive reserve.

There is a long history of danger to environmental activists in the Amazon region, far from the centers of Brazilian government.  This was brought to the world’s attention 23 years ago with the murder of Chico Mendes.  Mendes, a rubber tapper and environmental activist, had forged an alliance between the rubber tappers and indigenous peoples for sustainable development in the Amazon.  In 1988, after receiving death threats, he was assassinated at the order of a local rancher. Since then, many hundreds more have been killed.

This danger has intensified most recently with the conflict over the proposed changes to the Forest Code. In May, a prominent Brazilian conservationist and his wife were killed in the Amazon. Joao Claudio Ribeiro da Silva and his wife Maria do Espirito Santo were found murdered inside the nature reserve in the state of Pará where they had worked for the past 24 years promoting the eco-friendly cultivation of nuts, fruit and rubber. In this case as well, the victim had warned of repeated death threats against him by loggers and cattle ranchers.  Other recent victims include Adelino Ramos, a farmer and leader of the Movimento Camponês de Corumbiara (Corumbiara Peasant Movement) in the state of Rondonia.

These killings may not linked or the work of the same forces.  But they are a reminder that anyone who poses a serious obstacle to the exploitation of timber and other natural resources in the Amazon will risk deadly reprisals. Please express your support for Chief Almir.  We have to pressure the authorities to take this matter seriously, and to protect those who protect the forest.

To protest the Forest Code and the gutting of Brazil’s  rain forest protection laws, visit www.avaaz.org
More information on Chief Almir’s current efforts on the Amazon Conservation Team’s Brasil site

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Children of the Amazon Collects High Honors in Nepal

Posted in Children of the Amazon,Deforestation,Film,Indigenous Peoples,Nepal by Denise Zmekhol on May 13th, 2011


Children of the Amazon recently picked up the Bronze Drum Award at the Nepal International Indigenous Film Festival. Denise Zmekhol  posted on ITVS Beyond the Box a report from her trip, reproduced below, along with some special footage from the film. Children of the Amazon will be rebroadcast on May 14 and 15 on the PBS WORLD Channel.

In April I was invited to participate in the Nepal International Indigenous Film Festival. I returned feeling very inspired by the 10 days I spent in Kathmandu. I met many indigenous filmmakers from Nepal and around the world. Although one nation politically, Nepal — the birthplace of Buddha — is truly a multiethnic, multilingual, and multifaith country.

It was an amazing experience to share Children of the Amazon with the Nepali audience, many of whom knew very little about the Amazon even though deforestation is a major issue in Nepal.

I was invited to do a personal presentation on the theme of the “Evolving Indigenous Woman” in conjunction with the film festival. I shared my perspective on what happens when development does not respect the environment, the individual or community rights. I also described the impact of this development both positive and negative on women and young girls.

I created a special clip with excerpts from Children of the Amazon to show the interaction among women as they discuss issues of rainforest logging and education; and how they relate to living in two worlds — the one before contact with outsiders (only 40 years ago) and the other, the result of that contact.

Most indigenous women I met during the making of my film viewed education as the means of coping with a non-indigenous world. The example I used in the clip was clear-cutting of the rain forest. Conflict is inevitable; how to survive without letting themselves being exploited by the economic power that continues to destroy their resources — including as Motira Surui says, even the fruit trees that the indigenous people use for food.

Denise Zmekhol receiving the Bronze Drum award

Denise Zmekhol receiving the Bronze Drum award

One scene that I used in the clip shows a symbolic clash between generations, one that seems universal in any culture. We see the elder Weiã telling her daughter how she would like to see her daughter wearing the same face tattoos that the Surui people have used for thousand of years. The daughter simply responds that she doesn’t want the tattoos.

After the screening people told me they were inspired by the way the film represented the span of time between the original photographs then and the young people shown now. The film festival honored Children of the Amazon with the Bronze Drum Award.

I also met with the Directors Guild of Nepal. Their struggle mirrors our own in terms of the need for funding. Their situation is even more difficult with no government support for filmmaking. What private support exists often seeks purely commercial projects. However the Nepali films I’ve seen capture the beauty of Nepal that I saw firsthand, and also reveal a country of economic struggle and armed Maoist revolution.

Nepal was a highlight in the presentation of my film around the world. I experienced once again the sensation that we are all connected through our shared fate of the planet and in that sense all of us are children of the Amazon.

The eyes of Buddha, who was born in Nepal, at Swayambhunath, also known as the Monkey Temple - Kathmandu, Nepal

The eyes of Buddha, who was born in Nepal, at Swayambhunath, also known as the Monkey Temple - Kathmandu, Nepal

Time off from the festival, a chance to explore Kathmandu's side streets

Time off from the festival, a chance to explore Kathmandu's side streets

A gazing holy man captured in passing during a break from the film festival in Kathmandu

A gazing holy man captured in passing during a break from the film festival in Kathmandu

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The Surui Carbon Project & Google Earth Engine

Posted in Amazon,Carbon,Deforestation,Google Earth,Indigenous Peoples by Denise Zmekhol on April 7th, 2011

We are posting the latest chapter in the continuing story of the partnership of the Surui people and Google entitled The Surui Carbon Project: A Great Adventure. The new film clip runs 4 min and tells the story of how the Surui are using Google Earth Engine, a new technology, to measure and protect the trees of the rainforest.

Google Earth Engine is an online environment monitoring tool, a digital model of our planet that is updated daily and available to the world. It stores petabytes (millions of gigabytes) of satellite data and allows high-performance tools to analyze and interpret this information that can then be visualized on a map.  This platform can be used to measure rainforest changes in the Amazon, water resources in the Congo, or other important environmental resources.

I conducted several interviews with Google in Mountainview which we combined with footage taken in the Amazon by the Surui and their Carbon Project partners, including the Amazon Conservation Team (ACT Brazil), Metareilá, IDESAM, Kanindé, Forest Trends and FUNBIO. To learn more about the Google Earth Engine platform, visit their googlelabs page.  If you want to know more about the Surui, watch Children of the Amazon.

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Connecting the UK with the reality of life in the rainforest

Posted in Amazon,Deforestation,Indigenous Peoples,WWF by Kevin Kanarek on December 15th, 2010

In this guest blog post, Sarah Hutchison from WWF-UK, tells us how the conservation organisation, a large media organisation and the government of Acre in Brazil (where Children of the Amazon was filmed) are working together to help reduce deforestation and improve the lives of forest people.

Sarah in Brazil © Sarah Hutchison / WWF-UK

Sarah in Brazil. Photo © Sarah Hutchison / WWF-UK

I’ve been at WWF-UK since 2001, and before that I spent eight years in Ecuador, working on conservation and sustainable development projects in the ‘cloudforests’ of the high Andes. My focus now is on the Amazon – and it’s an amazingly rewarding job!

In October 2009, WWF and Sky formed a partnership to help protect one billion trees in Acre state, Brazil, through Sky Rainforest Rescue.  The project aims to help tackle deforestation on a huge scale – covering about three million hectares of forest – bringing benefits for the people and species of Acre, as well representing an important step in tackling climate change.

Through Sky Rainforest Rescue we’re also showing people in the UK the wonders of Amazon but also the effects of deforestation, through news reports and programmes including special films like Children of the Amazon and high-profile celebrity expeditions with stars like Lily Allen.  We have also created an interactive virtual rainforest that has been touring the UK.

The BR364 highway (currently under construction) will run through the Sky Rainforest Rescue project area. Photo © Sarah Hutchison / WWF-UK

The BR364 highway (currently under construction) will run through the Sky Rainforest Rescue project area. Photo © Sarah Hutchison / WWF-UK

Seeing the true value of the forests

The good news is that 88% of Acre is still forested – from the air you can see the breathtaking vastness of it all.

And these are not empty forests. They’re home to some uncontacted tribes (as Ivaneide Cardozo describes on this blog), 14 indigenous groups, rubber tappers, riberinhos (riverside dwellers) and subsistence farmers.

But trees, people and wildlife are all at risk from encroaching deforestation and development. The big challenge in the Amazon, as we know, is how to develop an economy where forests are considered just as financially attractive as cattle pastures or agricultural land.

However, unfortunately, forest land is often worth less than deforested land. The world economy doesn’t yet recognise the role that forests play in capturing and storing carbon from the atmosphere, helping generate rainfall, conserving soils and providing all sorts of benefits and services.

There’s been much discussion about an international approach to reducing deforestation – which has given rise to the concept of REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries).

The Acre government is designing a policy that will help value the environmental services the forest provides and reward local people for protecting it. The aim is to put into practice the concept of REDD+ and Sky Rainforest Rescue will help pilot this policy on the ground.

I believe the great legacy of Chico Mendes has transformed Acre. The state government is striving to create a forest-based economy to challenge the kind of development seen in other Amazonian states such as Pará or Rondônia (which are in the so-called ‘arc of deforestation’).

A farmer, Senhor Nonato, and his family who are benefiting from a scheme that Sky Rainforest Rescue is supporting (© Sarah Hutchison / WWF-UK)

A farmer, Senhor Nonato, and his family who are benefiting from a project that Sky Rainforest Rescue is supporting. Photo © Sarah Hutchison / WWF-UK

How Sky Rainforest Rescue works

Some large businesses have started to see they can play their part in making change happen to reduce tropical deforestation.

Sky has a customer base of nearly10 million people in the UK – one in three homes receives Sky TV. Sky Rainforest Rescue asks people to join forces with Sky and WWF by making donations to help protect one billion trees in Acre.  Sky will match what the public donates up to £2milllion in order to help achieve the overall joint target of £4 million.

On the ground in Acre, I can see for myself how this money will help make a difference. The project is focusing on a particularly vulnerable area: the BR364 highway is still being paved in one section. In that region (between the towns of Feijo and Manuel Urbano) the subsistence farmers live a very marginalised life, with no electricity and very limited opportunities to sell their goods.

The forest in this area is still in very good condition, but as history has shown in the Amazon, with a paved road comes illegal occupation, illegal logging and deforestation. The challenge is to change this dynamic – starting now, before the road is finished.

If you’d like to know more about the Sky Rainforest Rescue’s work on the ground, please visit the website [sky.com/rainforestrescue]

Bringing all this to the attention of the UK public is vital to the project’s success. And we are doing this by working in partnership with Sky.

My job has certainly been transformed in the last year. I’m glad to be able to work with my WWF colleagues in Brazil to make this project a success on the ground, and I’m thrilled to help bring the UK public along on the journey with me.

Oh, and by the way, anyone can help support the project, wherever you live – just visit our donations page.

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Article about Chief Almir in Der Spiegel

Posted in Amazon,Chief Almir Surui,Children of the Amazon,Deforestation,Indigenous Peoples,Surui by Kevin Kanarek on June 12th, 2010

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This week, the international edition of the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel ran an in-depth profile of Chief Almir and the story of the Surui tribe.  It includes a detailed description of the Surui Carbon Project and 50-year plan, and some recent events regarding the monitoring and protection of the forest.  Just last week, the Surui intercepted three trucks from the neighboring state of Mato Grosso as they were about to drive off with illegally harvested mahogany.

An interesting sidenote: the Surui have invented a word for Google in their language: “ragogmakan,” meaning “the messenger.”

And a touching view of a generation gap that spans two worlds: Almir’s interactions with his 87-year old father, Marimop.

Read the article
Download the PDF file

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Chico Mendes clip featured on Telegraph21

Posted in Amazon,Chico Mendes,Deforestation,Film,Indigenous Peoples,Rubber Tappers by Kevin Kanarek on May 19th, 2010

Telegraph21 is a curated video magazine that showcases international documentaries. Today and tomorrow, Telegraph21 will feature Children of the Amazon on their site. The clip they’ve chosen shows the story of Chico Mendes, a rubber tapper from the state of Acre in Brazil who became famous for his work in protecting the forest.

The clip begins with Chief Itabira Surui describing how Chico Mendes first forged the alliance between the rubber tappers and the indigenous peoples. The story of what they accomplished, and at what cost, is told by Raimundo Barros and Chico’s wife Ilzamar Mendes, interspersed with historical footage and the last interview that Chico himself gave one month before his death. Maria Elena Barbosa sings “In Xapuri (Chico Rei)” a haunting ballad that was written about Chico after he was killed. We see historic footage of the successful stand-off which Chico organized to save an area of the forest from being cut down, and we see Raimundo Barros at that time — nearly 20 years younger — patiently explaining to one of the rancher’s workers why the forest must belong to everyone.

This clip exemplifies the work of Chico Mendes and his companions. Often called “the Gandhi of the Amazon,” Chico worked very peacefully, focused on non-violent action and finding common ground. His legacy has been an inspiration to many, including Marina Silva, who grew up in a rubber tapper community, worked closely with Chico, and went on to serve as Brazil’s minister of the environment until 2008. Marina is now a candidate for the presidency of Brazil.

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Working with the Surui

Posted in Amazon,Carbon,Chief Almir Surui,Deforestation,Indigenous Peoples,Surui by Vasco van Roosmalen on April 26th, 2010

I attended with Chief Almir the COP15 Climate conference Copenhagen. There, with the help of Google Earth Outreach and in partnership with Dr. Jane Goodall and the Jane Goodall Institute, Chief Almir presented in front of four heads of states and numerous business and NGO leaders a Google Earth tour showing the work that his people are doing to help mitigate climate change.

Knowing how far the Surui have come since the loss of over 90% of their people after first contact only 40 years ago —this gives us hope and reminds us that it is possible to turn things around, given the right determination and willingness to work together.

I was born in Holland. My father is a biologist and when I was six weeks old, my parents moved from Holland to a traditional indigenous village in the rainforests of Suriname where I spent my first years. After spending more time in the rain forests of French Guiana, my parents immigrated to Brazil where we lived in Manaus in the heart of the Amazon.

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Chief Almir and Vasco at Copenhagen

I first met Chief Almir at a USAID Environment meeting in Manaus in 2004 where we had just presented the results of the Amazon Conservation Team’s mapping work with other tribes in the Amazon. After that first meeting it took another year for us to begin the process of working together and in 2006 we were able to help the Surui people map their own lands as part of their 50 year plan for their future and to provide a basis for their management plan for the Surui  forests (please see related stories in Smithsonian Magazine, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Washington Monthly and Mongabay on Almir Surui and ACT’s mapping efforts.

Ever since then, we have expanded our partnership with the Surui thanks to the support of donors like USAID, the Overbrook Foundation and others. We have seen their capabilities grow to take on ever more complex projects that benefit their people and strengthen their protection of their forests. It is our aim to work with the Surui and the other partners to replicate the results and projects pioneered with them with other indigenous groups in the Amazon and beyond. Just in the Brazilian Amazon, indigenous lands cover over 20% of the forest and their inclusion and effective participation is crucial to any solution to end large-scale deforestation.

Vasco painted with jenipapo root by the Waura indians in the Xingu Reserve

Vasco painted with jenipapo root by the Waura indians in the Xingu Reserve

The Documentary “Children of the Amazon” gives the viewer a first-hand look into the issues facing forest peoples in the Amazon today in a way few other movies have done. Denise Zmekhol’s account of her return to the Surui tribe is breathtaking. I hope that it can help move more people to reflect and to take action.

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Letter from the Forest

Posted in Amazon,Carbon,Deforestation,Indigenous Peoples,Surui by Chief Almir Surui on April 14th, 2010

I’m writing this to share with you part of my struggle to make the world a more equitable and sustainable place, starting with preserving the forest where my people live, and improving their well-being. During the last few decades we implemented a series of initiatives, including the formulation of a 50-year Paiter/Suruí plan ** in which we establish, as a community, what we want to accomplish and where we want to be in the next half a century. Using this plan, and with the support of our long-time partner—Kaninde – Associação de Defesa Etnoambiental— we already executed an ethno-environmental study of our territory. And, with the support of ACT —the Amazon Conservation Team— we mapped out our territory based on our traditional vision.

During these last years we have also strengthened the Metareilá Association of the Suruí Indigenous People (Associação Metareilá do Povo Indígena Suruí), which currently coordinates all management activities related to our lands and culture. In 2007 we began developing a carbon-focused project — Surui Carbon Project — based on our reforestation program, of which Associação Aquaverde has been a long-time supporter. During the months of December, January and February we planted 45,000 saplings of açai, mahogany, cherry, pupunha, copaiba, cocoa and jatoba trees.

Saving the ancient forest that is still standing in much of our lands is also important. Today we also have partnerships with IDESAM for the development of a carbon project of deforestation that was prevented, and with FUNBIO, for building a financial management tool for our 50-year management plan. In 2007 I traveled to California where we started a partnership with Google Earth Outreach to help the Suruí people tell the world about their work by using the web.

The Surui Carbon Project provides us an opportunity for managing our lands, which hopefully will ensure the sustainable use of the forest and the survival of our culture, and also will create an opportunity for recognizing indigenous people’s knowledge of the forest and for allowing them to contribute to a sustainable and equitable development. This project also involves discussions on how to help solve global problems such as climate change by enabling the creation of a green economy based on sustainability and social justice. In these discussions we asked for support from an institution called Forest Trends.

The Surui Carbon Project also provides a means for supporting the implementation of civil rights policies and creating a “green” awareness and interconnection among all peoples of the world.

– Chief Almir Surui

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The Story of “Children of the Amazon”

Posted in Amazon,Chico Mendes,Chief Almir Surui,Children of the Amazon,Deforestation,Film,Indigenous Peoples,Rubber Tappers,Surui by Denise Zmekhol on January 1st, 2010

I traveled to the Brazilian Amazon on several occasions between 1987-1990 to assist on television documentaries. During my journeys, I had the opportunity to visit many Indigenous communities, always with my camera by my side. What caught my eye were the children. Born to parents who had relied on the rainforest for their survival, these children were growing up surrounded by new ways—ways that were destroying the forest.

I was also drawn to the children of the rubber tappers…the people who harvest the wild rubber trees. The trees they relied on were also being cut down. I photographed the legendary rubber tapper Chico Mendes and his family. Chico had become renowned the world over for his nonviolent resistance movement to protect the rainforest.

15 years later—and a world away—I returned to these slides, which were never printed, never shared.  The images brought back a particularly searing memory: a phone call from Chico in December 1988, asking me to film his funeral. I told him he was crazy, he wasn’t going to die, he had too much work to do. Two weeks later he was shot dead by a rancher. Stirred by faces of the children in my photographs and haunted by Chico’s untimely death, I was inspired to travel to the Amazon again—this time, to make a movie.

While I expected change, I was not prepared for the extent of it. So much of the forest had been destroyed. My response to the loss is the creation of Children of the Amazon — a tribute to a people struggling to save their forest home. But the goal of the film is more than to bear witness. I hope to offer insight to a distant and remote land while simultaneously drawing connections to our own lives. For we are—all of us— Children of the Amazon breathing the same air, walking the same planet, and in some sense that we have yet to understand, sharing the same fate.

~ Denise Zmekhol

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