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Documentari
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| Mother Forest and the Street Children (Brasil) |
| 13/11/2008 16:42 | |
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Italian title: Mamma foresta e i bambini di strada
A woman against deforestation. The state of Alagoas, in northeastern Brazil, was once entirely covered by the Atlantic forest, a dense green cover which stretched from the coast to the Amazon basin. The forest was also home to the Chucurù indios, whose descendants still worship a god of the forest, Riki Kulià . The Chucurù believe that after a temporary incarnation in human form, their spirit will once again return to live inside a tree.
In northeast Brazil, and in particular in the state of Alagoas, deforestation began in the 17th Century, promoted by two new economic realities. On the one hand, landowners needed ever-increasing grazing territories for theis livestock. While on the other hand, cash crop cultivation, in the form of sugar cane, was introduced along the length of the Brazilian Atlantic coast, where it prospered, thanks to slave labor. The consequences, all too visible today, range from the destruction of the area's biological resources, to recurring and devastating droughts, to socio-economic degradation.
The Northeast is the poorest region of Brazil. Four children out of five are undernourished, and the infant mortality rate is twice that of the country's average. To make matters worse, a survey has shown that in the Alagoas region, an areaonce known as a Paradise of Water, only two percent of the population is aware that all their precious water comes from a small forest called Pedra Talhada, or Sliced Rock.
Anita Studer, a Swiss ornithologist, first came to Brazil twenty years ago to study its birds. As a scientist she never imagined that she would be swept away by human and environmental commitments and that one day her dedication and grassroots passion would transform the economic and social landscape of northeastern Brazil.
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| Anita Studer |
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Anita Studer
"When I first came to Brazil I was only interested in birds. After 10
years I discovered a new bird on the edge of a forest in the north
eastern part of Brazil. I was with my biology teacher and he told me
you better hurry up because in 10 years there will be no more forest. I
had a shock. I did not sleep well that night. So I decided to do
something for the forest. When I got up in the morning, I told my
teacher, look I'm going to study the bird but I will do the contrary of
what you told me. I will first try to save the forest and then I will
study the birds for the rest of my life.
When I began to appeal to preserve the forest and mix with all these
things, I got some threats. I had many, many pressures and some direct
threats. I think I escaped because I am a woman. First, I am small in
size - this is a great advantage because physically I am not a threat
to these men who are not accustomed to kill women, especially small
ones like me.
The Atlantic forest is a tropical rainforest, which covered Brazil's
coast the length of 4,000 kms. Now we have only small reminders: 99%
was destroyed. What remains is an area of about 7 square kilometers, 7
on one side, 7 on the other side, to give you an idea. Though, it gives
drinking water to 300,000 people. But many people don't realize its
importance, and look for immediate gains, either cultivating sugar cane
or to raising cattle. So very soon, a project of reforestation came up
in my head. It gave work to the villagers and at the same time, it
deepened their consciousness - because planting trees is a long term
process. 40,000 trees are now being grown. All are native species.
The small town of Quebrangulo, nearby the forest of Pedra Talhada, was
founded in the 17th Century by a handful of African slaves who had
escaped the inhuman conditions of life on the plantations. It is still
an extremely poor town where the people's main concern is securing the
next meal, and where the few landowners are not impressed by arguements
in favor of preserving the last remains of the pristine forest.
Obviously I could not take care of the forest without talking to the
local people. And there I got my second shock. About street children,
abandoned children, and the misery in which they live. So I decided to
do something for them too. It was like another responsibility I took
on. I never would've believed it before, that one day I would go from
the birds to the forest to the children but it was like a natural
process. I could not save the forest without doing something for the
villagers. I think. So I began to build workshops for these children
and to make educational projects. The growing young men leave the
village because 80% of the land is in the hands of three families and
the rest is divided between 10,000 people. As the villagers are
illiterate and not accustomed to big cities, they find no jobs in San
Paolo and end up in the slums of the big cities. And there we have the
second generation, the street children.
I spoke to the mayor of the village. I got his friendship also and it
was rather easy because I got a donor very quickly in Switzerland, and
the school was built. Some people ask, question me, how is it possible?
How can you be active in social situations and in environmental
projects? I think we can not consider one isolated from the other,
because men should live in a sound environment. By the way, Pedra
Talhada forest has now been declared a federal biological reserve, and
the Brazilian government finally reached an agreement with the
landowners that had been evicted."
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