How to tackle crime in the wild west (otherwise known as the Amazon)
You will have no doubt read about the terrible murders of journalist Dom Philips and conservationist Bruno Pereira, just two of hundreds of people murdered while trying to protect the Amazon and other endangered rainforests.
Their deaths were made even more poignant coming a few weeks before World Rainforest Day, a day organised by the Rainforest Partnership to discuss, among other issues, how to tackle the violence visited upon rainforest defenders.
I’ve travelled both ways along the Amazon, firstly from the Colombian/Brazilian border towns of Leticia and Tabatinga to Belem and then from Belem to Para. The first journey definitely had more of a wild west feel to it and was in the region of the Javari Valley Indigenous Territory where Dom and Bruno were travelling to in order to interview its inhabitants.
Much of the Amazon in that region and elsewhere is mired in poverty and violence. A solider travelling on our boat boasted about the cocaine being transported below us in the hold among the fish cargo and more worryingly, how he liked to take pots shots at indigenous Indians. When I remonstrated with him, he tried to justify his actions by saying he needed to shoot them first before they shot him.
Over 100 years beforehand, the Rubber Boom was taking hold of the Amazon and the indigenous tribes were enslaved to collect rubber so that citizens of rich countries could drive about in cars with rubber tyres. The streets leading up to the Manaus Opera House were lined with rubber so the horses and carriages carrying audiences didn’t disturb the orchestra and opera singers. The residents of Manaus became so wealthy they didn’t think twice about sending their laundry to Paris, to employ Eiffel to design buildings and to build the ill fated Mad Maria, a railway through the Amazon. The boom came crashing down when someone smuggled a seedling out and created the Malaysian rubber plantations where the rubber could be easily tapped and collected.
Instead of the rubber barons, it’s drug barons, illegal loggers, oil companies, gold miners and the 'fish mafia’ (essentially illegal fishing in a protected area on behalf of local businessmen) who are wreaking destruction on the rainforest today. The fish mafia doesn’t sound particularly scary until you realise their gang members are thought to be responsible for killing Dom and Bruno.
The conclusion from the day of talks held by the Rainforest Partnership was that there is no single solution to tackling rainforest crime. Satellites can help locate areas of deforestation but you ultimately need spotters who can pass through the forest unnoticed. These are usually the indigenous tribes who can confront the loggers and miners in great numbers and tell them to leave.
The loggers and miners know that the spotters have evidence on their mobile phones which goes straight to the local law enforcement, the police and judiciary, and this does act as a big deterrent. In the best case scenario, the raiders run away. Sometimes the spotters need armed body guards to protect them though, and it’s important to make sure they’re not working with a corrupt police force or judiciary system or else the defenders can end up being threatened or dead like Dom and Bruno. Luckily in Brazil the judiciary are separate from the appalling Bolsonaro government.
Another solution is providing alternative economic and educational opportunities and healthcare. For example, infant mortality rate is 20.88 deaths per thousand live births in Tabatinga compared to the national average of 12.8 and just 21.6 per cent of homes in the town have adequate sanitation.
Perhaps it’s time for the richest countries in the world, many of whom have destroyed their own natural habitats, to pay to keep the Amazon free from destruction by paying people who live there to become the custodians of it?
Sadly, it may be too late to do anything to help protect the Brazilian areas of the Amazon. The Brazilian Congress is looking at legislation to open up indigenous lands for mining and timber putting the Javari Valley Indigenous Territory, among others, in great jeopardy.
Last minute skulguggery!
We were just £124 off our £1500 target for Skulduggery, our short comedy film/web series after a last minute bid to style Paton’s moustache from a very generous actor/producer.
The moral of this story is to keep checking up to the very last moment before giving up on your project.
For those who don’t know how Kickstarter works, you don’t get the pledges until you reach your target and as we hadn’t quite reached it, it means we have to start again.
But a massive thank you to those of you who pledged money. We will return very soon with the same rewards if you wouldn’t mind pledging again!
Thank you for reading. x