Hi all!
Thank you for following this
chat today about one of the most
.
.
.
biodiverse places in the planet,
but it's very endangered and I mean the Amazon.
So many of you are following
the deforestation here,
The fires have increased
significantly in this region and this
impacts both those who are
close and those who are far from the forest.
And today we're going to talk to some
very special and inspiring guests who live in
the Amazon or not so far from it and
work on a daily basis fighting for
forest conservation and for
survival of its people.
Let's discuss a little bit about what the
situation is like there and make this conversation a place to share
some rich personal experiences from these
people we have here. So I 
thank all of you who came to this
space to talk. It is super
important to bring our listeners your experiences.
I will quickly introduce
who we have with us today to talk.
We have Livia Pinaso, from Polluters Out,
who will be able to better explain what 
this movement does. She is
a chemistry technician, and is also studying
to be an environmental technician.
We have the community
leader Angela Mendes,
who is a coordinator from the
Chico Mendes Committee and is
sowing the legacy of
the rubber tapper leader Chico Mendes,
who is a source of inspiration to
many of us in and out of the country.
And then we also have 
Sâmela Sateré-Mawe, who is part of the
movement Fridays For Future,
Which is a
movement that has focused a lot on the
preservation of the Amazon. Sâmela is
also a biology student and activist,
and can tell people a little more 
about her work.
Now I will invite you all to do a quick presentation
and talk a little more
about your work and also
answer the question
about what's happening right now in the Amazon.
I don't think many people
know much information,
and it's important to have
information from you 
that are working every day on the
struggle for the conservation of the
Amazon. We will begin
with the Sâmela.
Hello, good morning I’m Sâmela Sateré-Mawé
I'm a biology student at the University of the
Amazonas State, and
from the Indigenous group
Sateré-Mawé. I’m part of the climate
movement Fridays For Future, where we run a campaign,
SOS Amazônia, that
aims to raise one million reais to help
the Indigenous People here from  Amazonas state.
COVID is also a question that has come to
the forefront for indigenous people. We've
always been invisible and it looks like
this pandemic is invisibilizing us even more
because there is no policy to face
COVID crisis or account for
the diversity of the
Indigenous populations in general.
The aid comes by certain means -
not through the government -
but mostly by other organizations.
We can see that
the biggest help comes from them. 
In the month of August
there were many fires. Several stories that I read from
the Real Amazon, and in other newspapers,
showed that these bushfire hotspots 
have grown 
and have been intensifying in this period
much more than in previous years.
Another thing is illegal mining - the mining within
indigenous lands. With this pandemic, it
seems that environmental laws
are being relaxed and
inspections are dwindling.
The illegal miners have taken advantage of this
to enter indigenous land and
extract resources,
pollute rivers, and kill
Indigenous people who are there
defending their territory. With the
pandemic this issue is
invisible and we 
have the risk of bringing the virus into
these communities.
It seems that there is no
respect for our territory
that's been
demarcated, and we still live
in uncertainty
of those lands being
taken. If people don’t
respect demarcated lands, think about what will happen
if this system is weakened further.
The only place that has ICU beds is in
Manaus. So if a person becomes
sick far away from Manaus, they have to travel,
sometimes for days on a boat, to get
seen at an ICU. Sometimes it takes too long.
It's a very complicated issue.
The issue is, there is a vulnerability
in health assistance in the
public and private health sector
in the northern region,
but there's also the question of
land invasions - you explained it so well.
We, at Greenpeace, have been tracking the
the fires, deforestation and
we can see that, in fact, there is a
significant increase of it in
protected areas. There is an
“epidemic” in miners in the Indigenous lands,
which is very sad because they also transmit
the virus to the population, as you said, even in
the Amazon.
Good morning everybody my name is Livia, and
I'm 18 years old and I'm here in São Paulo.
I am chemistry technician 
and I’m studying
to be an environmental technician.
I am also doing entrance exams to med school.
We started this work because one of our co-founders,
Helena Gualinca, she is from Ecuador and
she lives in an indigenous community
on the Napo river, where there is an oil well.
After floods, there was an oil spill
In the river and
nobody warned the community and
they started getting sick.
We started a fundraising campaign
and now everything there is much better.
30 years ago
in fact, it was found that
the State of the Amazon holds the
largest light oil reservoir in Brazil.
The Urucu oil province is being explored by
Petrobras using a 30-year exploration license.
They take 30 thousand oil barrels per day.
As if this isn’t enough,
this is just one oil province alone.
It supplies the 
Northeast with around 15% of
the Amazonas state’s PIB, and it’s being sold by Petrobras
to other international companies. 
We don't know
how this sale is being made. A transparent transaction
is not being made, but it also
creates jobs there,
so we have to pay close attention
to this issue of transparency.
Internationally, especially in relation to 
this “oil -producing Amazon” as it is called,
there are states that don't respect anything basically.
Like Ecuador, which divided up indigenous lands
and national parks and sold them to
international companies to explore.
And that is why we currently
have this invisibility, particularly with isolated communities
that have oil companies in their region or territories,
which is absurd.
The products of these extractions -
gas and oil burning - have increased the
local temperature, and that of
the climate and a modified microclimate, 
and are also contaminating
the communities of the region.
So we have for example, areas
contaminated with Mercury that
people don't know have been contaminated
and they are using the river water, a
river has always been
central to the life of that
community. They're drinking the
water, and nobody is warning them.
There is no care being taken -
there's research that shows
that 60% of the some communities
are contaminated with Mercury
and these people are not being treated for it.
Why is people’s health not enough? Because
the interest isn’t in
looking at them as human beings
and as a society, that's sad and revolting.
Thank you, Livia.
Thanks for bringing that perspective
I guess, I was thinking as you were speaking,
how do all these things connect?
We have on one side the activity
with deforestation, mining, oil exploration in
the Amazon, but everything is
connected, right?
Unfortunately, we have
governments that are
working to open the forest borders for
the interests of a few people
and what we see is that it brings
losses to the vast majority -
for the people who are living there, for the traditional
communities, and even for people far away.
For a few to win, we are destroying
the forest and many are losing.
The communities there eat the
fish, drink the water that has Mercury in it and get sick.
There are many other
environmental benefits
given to us by the forest,
for example, much of the rainfall in
many parts of South America 
comes from the Amazon, so if we destroy it,
what happens to us, whether or not we are near or far?
We all end up being impacted by it,
and I think that’s important to talk about
here, where we have a government that's actually
working against the environment.
Thank you for the opportunity to be
part of this conversation
in this very cool place,
with young and empowering women
I'm even happier because at the
moment the Chico Mendes Committee,
of which I am the current coordinator of, and
that was created for
the continuation of the ideals
of my father, Chico Mendes, to defend his legacy and
memory, is now working
to hold the young people's festival of
the future that is going to happen on Sunday,
September 6, in honour of a letter he left for
young people where he talks about a revolution,
and about the dream of a socialist
revolution led by the youth of this generation.
Today we have a set of factors.
that threaten the integrity
of people and territories.
I’m speaking of the traditional
communities of the forest, that
are the caretakers,
the river people,
and the original peoples,
which Sâmela already mentioned.
We have another group of people living there formed
by lumbermen, squatters, farmers
and ranchers, and we also have
the government today, a government of
the extreme right with ultra-liberal politics
serving a violent
capitalist system,
which then threatens the people
and it harms our natural resources
in a destructive way
to satisfy the  so-called “God Market”.
There are communities that
have been victims since the
very beginning of this government
due to rollbacks in the
environmental area and
because of personal hate they receive from
the government.
During this campaign, Bolsonaro has already said
in regards to Indigenous People,
That he wouldn’t demarcate any extra centimeter of
new Indigenous lands. In
fact, since this government took office,
it has been acting, like you've already said,
with the
intent to extinguish
all those bodies and institutions that
protect the Amazon and who make public policies
focused on traditional populations of the forest.
The government has been undermining these institutions and their structure 
behind the scenes, right?
Whether it's through resource-cutting
or through the harassment
of the employees from these institutions.
On one hand they’re removing
resources from environmental 
bodies, and on the other hand they’re allocating more 
resources to Ministry of Defense,
putting resources in government
bodies that do not have any knowledge in
working with the communities of the Amazon.
In addition, they are removing resources
from delicate and 
essential areas, such as
education and technology in order to invest
in something totally useless, in 
something that
already existed.
So the government
today is using this strategy of 
scrapping institutions 
that are vital to guaranteeing the rights of
traditional populations and
the  environment
at the expense of 
an initiative 
to try and be accountable to the international
community on something they’re not actually doing.
The government has one narrative for 
outside of the country, and another practice 
inside the country and with traditional
communities. 
The Chico Mendes Reserve
has a very important role.
If you look at the map, of  the evolution of
deforestation from when the reserve was created in
1990 until today, it is very evident
that the reserve
Is a frontier against deforestation.
It’s acting as a barrier
on deforestation.
It is important to mention also that the
Federal Parliament has been
a very active actor in threats
to this territory's integrity.
Half of the legislative bodies, more precisely federal deputies,
are enacting some of the most threatening
projects here in Acre.
Federal Deputy, Mara Rocha, is
proposing the reduction of
Chico Mendes reservation and the
extinction of the Serra
do Divisor National Park -
one of the most biodiverse
places on this planet.
It's not even enough for them
to stop the creation of areas of conservation and Indigenous lands
right, Angela?
They also want to open up more to economic
interest and to reduce its limits?
Exactly, pandering to the
interests of agribusiness.
Who does this group have a close relationship with?
Or do they,
themselves have direct interests
in it? But in Bill number 6024,
the Federal Deputy proposes the recategorization -
the extinction of the Serra do Divisor
National Park - and the reduction
of the Chico Mendes reservation.
The legislature is supporting the interests of a group, a small group, of
offenders who even met with
Minister Salles, right? They have
appointments with congressmen,
while the
people who are defending
their reserve, as well as Indigenous
people, are unsuccessfully trying to make an
appointment with Minister Salles.
We, this population, are not granted the
right to be heard.
And then we're still in this
system of total impunity, with a
record year of deforestation, year after year
and it’s burning - it’s now at the peak of burning
It is so strong that if you open the window
you almost can’t breathe because it's all
smoke. This is
causing respiratory problems,
aggravating respiratory problems, and along
with the COVID, this is a bomb.
We have a green light saying, “go ahead, take
illegal timber, invade public lands", and the message is that
firstly nobody's going to catch you, because
the surveillance is
completely ineffective if you look at the state of agencies with 
the competence to do it, and secondly it’s,
“keep calm, invade it because in a short
time we’ll find a way to reduce the protected area,
and hand you the
land title”. We are in a
complicated moment - going in
the opposite 
direction, completely. For those who
don't follow the issue of
deforestation in the Amazon, we had a time
around 1998-2004 where the Amazon set records
for annual deforestation, and after that a
a number of policies have been
implemented due to international pressure.
At that time the international pressure drove
good policies, and among them were
the creation of protected areas, the
demarcation of indigenous land, and creation of
conservation units, many command
and control activities, so the
State was present in the field 
with the institutions that had the
knowledge to do this job. Right now,
deforestation is on the rise again
and what we have is just marketing stunts, actually
Because we don't have that much time here,
and I’d love us to have a whole day,
because you all
have very good
contributions
I really want
I want to understand a little
more about how it is to be
an activist these days.
And I think that Sâmela can
talk a little bit about
being an activist today.
The importance of collective action,
of collective actions at
this time for society.
So I wanted you to hear from you, and
It hasn’t been so long since you have
joined this world of activism, right?
I mean, maybe you have been an activist
since you were a kid?
Because the struggle for the indigenous
people have always been there, right?
Tell us a bit...
Exactly Cristiane, the fight isn't just from now. When 
I was born there was already a fight, and I
don't know if when I die
this fight will still be going
but like I said, I'm
part of the Indigenous women's movement,
of the Indigenous Women's Association.
My grandmother created
this association and she
was the coordinator, and now 
my mother is.
So, since I remember,  I've been part of
the Indigenous movement. I'm part of
organizations, have been to meetings
marches, congress, and even
without fully understanding I
I participated in these activities by
watching people, sleeping
there under the table at meetings.
When mommy was at a meeting she just
gave me a paper and pen to occupy me.
But I've always participated, even without
understanding, and when I grew up
and started university
I began to understand the
importance of this movement, of
activism. I always talk about the
story of how I started to understand it.
I went to find out what
activism was at INPA -
the National Research Institute of the Amazon.
I commented to my friend about how I was
going to participate in an activity,
I think it was a march or something,
and my mom was going there too. My friend asked
if my mother was an activist, and I
didn't know what an activist was.
Then she said:
“Does she fight for a
cause and everything else?” I said “yes!
So she is an activist”. Then I googled:
“What is an activist?” 
I came to understand that
we were activists long ago,
even though I didn't know what
this word meant.
 I think that
it is very important for us
in the movement, to try and be
the difference, because I believe we youth
have that ability to mobilize
people - we have that
vigor, that perseverance.
Of course, life is very fast.
We have many things to do but I
believe we need to prepare ourselves.
Sometimes women say
they're tired, they say
“We’ve been in the movement for
a long time and there will
come a day when you're going to have to take over
because we're getting tired already.”
And when I hear these words,
it makes me think, right?
It’s time to act, it's time to do
something, because 
our leaders in our older
women’s movement will not always be there.
They're tired, and it's not a new fight so
it's time for us to move up to the front
to make a difference for our generation.
I've always been from the
Indigenous movement, and now I'm
entering the environmental activist movement
due to the area I work, and because of the
indigenous and environmental issues here
connecting  indigenous and biological
views. I used to be more
focused on indigenous rights activism
and not on environmental issues,
but now it all fits together
because you can’t have one thing without the other.
It's all connected. You can’t just
focus on indigenous
rights and not know or
not have anything to do with environmental matters,
because everything is connected.
So that's what we're all connected to.
Also with black rights, LGBTQI issues,
we are always in
the same demonstrations, the same conversations.
This young strength, this young strength
that we have now - and we must take
advantage of social media - this opportunity that
we have to make a difference,
That's what Fridays For Future does.
Very good Sâmela,
it’s very inspiring to see you all
with this energy, because that's what the
the world needs right now.
A lot of people are
tired of seeing so many bad things,
but there's also hope,
right? We have to 
really fight for better days, because if
we don't then they won't come.
And now I want to ask Livia a question,
because she has something in common with me -
she's not in the Amazon.
I've lived in Manaus for a while,
but I'm not from the Amazon. I'm passionate
about the Amazon, but I think many people who listen
to us are far away from the Amazon, right?
They may think ok, but I’m so far away from there
how can I do something, what is the importance
for me as someone who is so far away,
who was not born there, who didn’t grow up there,
to have this daily struggle.
I don't know, maybe you already have
answered that for some people, right, Livia?
Because I've heard: “But you can’t
talk because you're not from there”,
How do you see it?
Yes, firstly I think we have to understand that
all life is valid, so if you're here
in Sao Paulo, you also have to
worry about the people
living in the Amazon.
You can say: “I don't know people there,
I was never there”, but they are people too.
When you think about biodiversity, in general,
we are all connected - from me in São Paulo
to a tree in the Amazon,
we're on the same planet.
We're in the same place, so why
shouldn't I care, you know?
Why would I not take action?
Because the
Amazon and its biodiversity do impact your life,
the food you eat 
is directly connected with the
dynamics of the climate - we are all
connected. The more we
deforest the Amazon - less rain will fall in
the Central-West region,
and then the less rain you will find here.
This will affect growing crops, we will need more water, more
planting areas, more deforestation
and food will become more
expensive, and who 
will it hit? vulnerable populations,
because the people that have financial difficulties,
they will struggle, you
know, and we have to care about this.
It has been 30 years since people started speaking up 
and saying that this way of life will not work -
look at this
it’s already happening. There are a lot of people
making a lot of money at the expense of
people who have nothing, and
if you don't realize that,
then how are you relating to other people?
How do you stare at your
dog and think like:
“wow that's life”, or look at a monkey and
think: “it is just a thing”, because it’s not just that.
If you're here in São Paulo, or you're in
in Rio, you have to use your voice
to show people that, even though you
are in a bubble and you're
not seeing this situation, it is happening.
It’s about human rights,
kind of like veganism, it is about rights.
Thanks, Livia. Sâmela just told us
that she has to leave, but
before you leave I wanted you
to offer some quick final
thoughts about
how you see the Amazon
and this fight for the future?
Just some final thoughts to
say goodbye to us.
At the moment, we're going through a lot
of things, but I have hope.
My word, I think,
would be hope. I have hope
that we can survive
and that in the future we can keep this
forest that is so beautiful and so diverse, 
standing, and the traditional peoples that
live in it and that depend on it, alive,
with our culture preserved and respected.
And that's what I hope
for Amazon, I don’t know, in the future.
If you could define Amazon
in a word what would be?
Hope,
Hope.
My word is still hope
Thank you for your participation.
Bye, all!
Sorry I'm gonna have to go and solve a problem
with the equipment that we're
taking to Indigenous land today.
Thank you and congratulations on your fight,
it’s such an important movement.
Bye.
Bye.
Angela, maybe we could bring you to a moment where you
felt most empowered during your
trajectory of activism.
Is there is any experience you can 
share with us where
you most enjoyed feeling empowered?
Well I guess the whole trajectory of
my father's fight 
served as a base 
for my own history, which
began late.
Cristiane, things happen to
us in the moment how they should happen,
late or early, but I think the
moment was the intense search for my spirituality,
the connection I made
with my father's call to the
young people's leadership. So when I
think of the most beautiful
things in my activism, it was
the creation of the youth nucleus of
the Chico Mendes Committee,
because it speaks
a lot to something that we have
already talked about here -
it speaks to something that was his dream
and his hope, but it’s also something
that is very current and is
very important - this leadership
of youth - and since 2016 when
I took this initiative to create the youth core group
and started working with young people, I think that was one of the
my moments of gratitude to
the universe, and of empowerment
as a woman, and also as a militant,
recognizing the need for us to
include young people in constructing
this debate for a more fair and
inclusive society, understanding also
what we face. When you talk about the
Amazon savanization,
of the scarcity of water resources, we
understand the strategic role of youth,
that youth have been putting
themselves at the frontline
of this process of
resistance and collective action as well
because the
people know there's no room
for individualism today, right?
I think that we need to talk
about the good stuff.
I think two good things we've been
coordinating today are that 
we continue an alliance
with the Alliance of Forest Peoples, and that we
reinforce the importance also of the festival of
Young People of the Future, that
is happening on Sunday.
I had invited Sâmela 
in this chat to participate and
I invite you also to
take part in this moment, it’s going to be
a very nice moment where
you're going to have
a lot of political talk
among other things, such as the
culture of the Amazon.
It’s very important.
We're moving forward, I am in that phase of passing
the torch over, and we can
support that base,
these young people who
are standing up now and awakening
and that's why I 
thank you for the opportunity
for us to be talking about this festival.
We may also have an opportunity
to invite you.
Angela is very nice to know about this festival.
I guess you can pass on more
details to us later, maybe through links
I will make an invitation, the
festival happens on Sunday
and on Saturday is also the
International Amazon Day and on this day
we will organize a Global Day of Action
for the Amazon, so stay connected
on all the Greenpeace channels and
we'll bring you more news. There are a lot
of organizations coming together and
actions being organised for this day. So, it's
an important moment, for people
to raise awareness of what's
been happening in the Amazon
and to join that movement - if not
there's no future.
You are organizing the Day of Action, and other
actions - the most important thing is that
people actually engage
in this fight, right?
And then, to finish I
wanted to ask you both
the same question I did to Sâmela, which is
how you see the future of the Amazon
and if you could define the Amazon in
a word, which would it be?
I see the future being much more, with youth alongside.
I was born after the Twins Towers
so I know, I've
seen a world
where people are not
invincible and the only 
way to survive is to keep together, you know?
So I guess
youth today means 
community, union, and collective growing.
And for the Amazon, a word to define it is
‘opportunity’, because we have
the opportunity,
the chance
to rescue these cultures. And also
connection, because it's 
about connection between people, 
between nature.
I want to read a
letter to young people, it is very short:
September 6, 2120: anniversary of the first
Centenary of the World Socialist Revolution
that has unified all the peoples of
the planet into one ideal, and one
thought of socialist unity and put
an end to all enemies of the
new society. Here remains only the memory
of a sad past of suffering, and death.
Sorry, I was dreaming when
I wrote these events that I
will not see, but I have the pleasure of having
dreamed it - Chico Mendes. This is the call he makes
to young people, and he begins
the letter with “ attention: young people of the future”,
Now, the word that I would use to define the Amazon today,
to everyone who fights in defense of the environment, in
defense of the Amazon, in defense of a
better planet,  that cares for their home, is
‘resilience’. I think that's the word.
For our planet, that has
suffered so much, and
which has been renewed in
every cycle, with every
generation, is resilience.
Very good, thank you, I think that these are
three good words: hope,
opportunity, and resilience. The Amazon is all that.
Without the Amazon there is no future, there is no
stable climate for people in the future, no ability to
produce anything. The Amazon also brings
many opportunities for those
that are far or near to the forest.
Very good, I feel contemplative.
I learned a lot from you.
I wanted to say thank you and I think it's
important to have these
conversations and conversations that
motivate more people. We have a problem,
but we also have a lot of people with
a lot of courage and energy to act.
I personally believe that if we
join together and be strong, we can change things.
It won't be an easy road,
but if we don't try we're
not going to make it. 
I also view the Amazon with a lot of hope, and
I hope that in this
struggle, our vision -
a vision of
humanity being here in the
long run - I hope that
it comes true.
Thanks for your participation and I don't know
if there is
anything you wanted to talk about
that I didn't ask. Now is the time.
I don't think there's anything better than
to invest in the social capital, in those
people who are there in
their regions and
play such an important role as
guardians of our natural resources,
through their ancestral practices, their way of
living and producing 
with their involvement with the forest.
It has been demonstrated
that it is possible to develop
a model of
production harmoniously that respects natural
resources, that respects 
people's quality of life. That is a good way to live.
So those people who are
there in those regions, they have a
strategic role: to protect.
There is a
phrase that we speak here that I find 
very important for people to have
it in their heads, it is that:
“Beyond taking care of the forest, you 
must also take care of those who take care of the forest."
This means
public policy and oversight are in place and ensuring
that the rights of these
people are being respected.
So I think it's very important that we
really follow that message
and take care of the 
forest and those who look after the forest, and
with that I close our conversation here.
I thank you immensely
for sharing your vision, your knowledge.
This conversation was very rich for me and
I think, for our audience too. Thank you. 
