Amazon Interviews

Davi Kopenawa - Indigenous Tribal Member

Transcript:

My people came to the Amazon rainforest over 12,000 years ago. We live as we always have. We hunt and fish and grow crops on small plots of land we’ve cleared in the forest. When the field is no longer fertile (able to grow crops) we move somewhere else. The forest comes back. It is a sustainable way of life. We use the rain forest without causing long-term damage.

In the 1960s, the Brazilian government started to open our lands to development. First a highway then loggers, ranchers, and farmers followed. Our traditional way of life has been hurt by these newcomers. Many of my people have been driven off their land to make room for ranchers and farmers. Some have died from diseases brought here. Others have been killed or injured in land use conflicts.

We want parts of the rainforest to be left alone. We have a right to preserve our traditional way of life. I want to live where I really belong, on my own land. We want to work with the Brazilian government to develop a plan that allows us to live our lives as we always have without bother from outsiders. We want to become legal owners of the land we lived on for thousands of years. Only then can we keep out those who want to take the land from underneath us.

Diego Martinez- Logging Company Boss

Transcript:

Our company has been around since the 1960s, providing the world with quality timber for products like paper and furniture. We clear-cut the Amazon rainforest to satisfy the world’s HUGE demand for products made from trees. The Amazon rainforest provides a great supply for such a demand.

The dirt roads we first made to get to logging areas are now highways that help Brazilians get around their country. Many ranchers and settlers have followed us and developed the deforested land into cattle land, small farms, or cities that provide a way of life for them and other Brazilians.

Our industry provides over $5 billion for Brazil’s economy and GDP. Our industry brings jobs to thousands of Brazilians who would otherwise be unemployed. We want access to the Amazon rainforest. Without the forest we cannot supply the world’s great demand for paper products and things made from wood.

​Without us Brazil’s economy does not grow. Our wood goes to Brazil’s furniture factories and paper mills and give jobs to not only loggers, but all those people working in those industries as well. The government taxes our industry and uses the money to pay for roads, hospitals, schools, World Cup stadiums for 2014. Our industry makes lives for Brazilians better.

Luis Cordova- Amazon Settler

Transcript:

My grandfather moved from Rio de Janeiro in the 1960s went the government created a program to encourage people move to the Amazon rainforest. The government gave him free land and money to start a small farm. He came with many, many other families with the same dream… to own and farm his own land. Now I live here with my family. We live in this rural area with some nearby neighbors. Most of the best farm land is owned by very rich Brazilians in the coast parts of the country and so we farm what we can.

In the rainforest, farming is much different. To get farmland we must “slash-and-burn” large areas of the forest before we can plant. The soil is very poor. It is not fertile or able to grow crop very well. The large amount of rain that falls here is washing away many nutrients in the ground to help us farm. We are very poor. What agricultural crops we do grow go to feeding this family. Without this land we will starve. Large plantations for coffee, sugar, soy and land for cattle ranching has taken up all of the other good land for farming. Where else will we go?

For indigenous Indians moving is very easy for new farmland, but we’ve built our home here and we cannot move as easily. We clear more and more land using “slash-and-burn” and the forest does not grow back like it would if we moved further away or spread out our farming.

We want to stay here and try and make it work. We know we are hurting the rainforest with our “slash-and-burn” deforestation, but what else can we do? We need to eat and make a living. I must provide for my family. Our little farms are not as destructive as the commercial soy farms of the land that cattle are raised. Please just leave us alone.

Joao Claudio Ribeiro da Silva - Environmentalist

Transcript:

We do not want to see the rainforest destroyed by deforestation. Since the 1970s scientists and environmentalists have studied the rainforest in detail. The biodiversity of all these species and the ecosystem of the Amazon rain forest are in great danger. Every day we lose species of plants, animals, bugs, and reptiles to extinction that we’ll never get back. Thousands of square miles of rainforest are deforested for farming, ranching, and settlers and for what? They are chasing money, but throwing away the future.

​All species of the Amazon rainforest have a right to live. This means saving the rainforest they call home. We must slow down development of the rainforest in order to study it more. With this information we can make better decisions about the rainforest’s future use.

We need to set aside protected areas where no one can touch the beauty of the forest. We need to create stronger laws against those who cut down the forest without permission. We need to protect the indigenous Indians from losing their land. We must find ways to use the forest sustainably without destroying it.”

Mariana Oliveria and Family - Brazilian City Citizen

Transcript:

What a time to be a Brazilian! We just finished hosting the 2014 FIFA World Cup and in 2016 the summer Olympics will come here. My city Rio de Janerio is one of Brazil’s largest and most famous. Perhaps you’ve seen the statue of Jesus Christ looking down on the city from the mountain tops?

Brazil is growing so rapidly. It is hardly like the Brazil I remember from when I was a child. Much of this is thanks to the incredible resources that have come from the Amazon rain forest.

Today our economy is the largest in South America and becoming very developed. Even though we’ve had to cut down some of the rain forest (believe me there’s plenty of it left!) we’ve now have corn, wheat, and soybean farms that feed the world. The forest has given way to large grasslands to raise cows for you Americans to eat your hamburgers. Plants from the rainforest have been turned into medicines that help people here and around the world with their sicknesses and diseases.

Most importantly, the money that has come from these products has fueled a massive growth in Brazil’s economy. The government and our people are better off than ever before. Sure we still have our problems, but our economy can afford more developed roads, schools, hospitals, and technology. We’re finally starting to break the “cycle of poverty” that so many Brazilians have struggled to escape.

If you ask me every tree lost in the Amazon rain forest is another life saved in a Brazilian city.

Carlos Alberto Guimaraes - Cattle Rancher

Transcript:

I’ve ranched this land in the Amazon rainforest since the 1960s and now I’ve got over 40,000 head of cattle on my land. These cattle graze (eat) mostly on grass and boy do they eat! All the way down to the dirt! Then I’ve got to move them to a new area with fresh grass to eat. Moving all these cattle from place to place gives the old grazed areas a chance to grow new grass. It also uses up a lot of land.

Loggers first cleared this land and then I finished up. Ever since it’s been used as cattle ranching land and it will stay that way. The rainforest is gone here. I did what I had to do to make a living. There are many people that will argue that cattle ranching doesn’t belong in the Amazon. I disagree. We’re making good use of this place rather than not using it at all.

The demand for Brazilian beef is huge and the United States is one of the biggest buyers of it. My ranch helps supply that demand. Like logging we bring in huge amounts of money for Brazil’s economy and GDP. The value of the beef we export (send to other countries) is more than $5 billion! That money pays for lots of programs and things in this country.

We don’t want any new laws preventing me and other ranchers from clearing more land for grazing. The Amazon rainforest is huge and we want the right to be able to be successful ranchers and grow Brazil’s economy.

What do you think? How should the Amazon Rainforest be used? Can we find a balance between economic development and environmental protection?