In this exclusive clip, Pope Francis discusses climate change and how it affects us all. It’s all part of the Dear Earth special; an epic global celebration of our planet and what we need to do to slow climate change. Sprinkled with musical performances, Dear Earth also contains well-known climate activists, creators and celebs who will all share ways to make our lives more sustainable. One of these climate activists is Chief Dadá!
Forest Forces event on Thursday 4 November 2021: Amazonia meets Amsterdam (during the UN climate summit in Glasgow)
Amazon Dialogues in Amsterdam on 4 November in Teatro Munganga
On Thursday 4 November 2021, during the UN climate summit in Glasgow (COP 26), Forest Forces Foundation and Teatro Munganga will present a night to discuss problems and solutions with regard to (illegal) deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon.
Amazonia meets Amsterdam: Indigenous and criminological perspectives on the Amazon rainforest: Stopping global deforestation is one of the hot topics that will be discussed at the UN climate summit in Glasgow (1-12 November). Globally, Brazil is by far the world’s number one deforestation country. In the Brazilian Amazon, most logging (for timber) is illegal: 80%-90%. Most deforestation (mainly for agriculture, and also for mining) is also illegal. Illegal logging and illegal deforestation are clear examples of forest crime. Climate change can be observed and felt in South America and the Amazon rainforest. As reported by Thompson Reuters (21 Sept 2021), heavy rain in May and June pushed the Negro River to its highest level in more than a century, causing flooding in Manaus, the Amazon rainforest’s largest city. At the same time, parts of southern and west-central Brazil in the Paraná River basin – including Brazil’s largest city of Sao Paulo – suffered unprecedented drought due to low rainfall.On 4 November in Amsterdam, the focus will be on threats to the Amazon rainforest due to illegal logging and deforestation, with special attention given to the Brazilian Amazon, which covers two-thirds of the total Amazon basin.
Two states in the Brazilian Amazon will be discussed in detail: the state of Acre near Peru and the state of Pará in the Lower Amazon near Surinam. The purpose of the night is not only to discuss deforestation problems, but also to have a dialogue between people from the Amazon and people from the urbanised western world, such as Amsterdam. The week of the UN climate summit is a good time to have this exchange.
Central guest of the night will be shaman Kamarati, spiritual leader of the Noke Koi (Katukina) people of the state of Acre in the Brazilian Amazon. The Noke Koi (Katukina) people will be further represented by Washme Noke Koi–Txana, traditional musician and son of the chief of the Noke Koi people, and by Mayá Kamanawa, indigenous rights activist from the state of Acre in the Brazilian Amazon.
Dr. Tim Boekhout van Solinge, forest crime scientist and director of Forest Forces Foundation, will provide contextual information by discussing (illegal) deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon in the context of climate change, indigenous land rights, and the role of demand markets and foreign investments from the EU and the Netherlands. He will also discuss deforestation in the state of Pará, which for many years has been Brazil’s leading deforestation state, and how Forest Forces Foundation has developed a best practice of GPS-supported forest crime prevention, together with the forest guards of Maró Indigenous Territory.
Besides presentations and dialogues with the speakers, there will be live indigenous music from the Amazon, as well as some videos.
More info: Facebook event
TIME: 20:00 – 22:30 (doors open 19:30)
LOCATION: Teatro Munganga, Schinkelhavenstraat 27hs, Amsterdam
Organised by:
Forest Forces Foundation www.forestforces.org
Teatro Munganga www.munganga.nl
Chief Dada meets Pope Francis at the Vatican
After numerous Covid-19 tests and a ten-day quarantine, two indigenous leaders from Pará (Chief Dadá Borari and his brother Poraborari) participated at the Vatican in a meeting of the Laudato Si Movement with Pope Francis.
Chief Dadá was personally invited by Pope Francis for this special meeting. On the photo you can see Pope Francis holding Dadá’s letter of reply to the Pope, written on wood from the Amazon forest. Dadá is holding a small statue of Francis in his hands. In the church in the Amazon they have a very old broken 19th century statue so in the village they had asked for a new one. Now Dadá has a new statue from the Vatican, blessed by the Pope.
Dadá was singing a traditional song (“We are warriors, I am a warrior”) and he told that he and Pope Francis danced the Surara.
More info: https://www.vaticannews.va/pt/papa/news/2021-08/papa-francisco-indigenas-brasileiros-vaticano.html
Interview with Dr. Tim at Brazilian online news program
Dr. Tim Boekhout van Solinge has been interviewed at Critica Brazil, a daily online news platform on YouTube, about environmental crime in Brazil and illegal drugs.
The interview has already been watched 95,000 times within 2 weeks!
Watch the interview on YouTube (in Portuguese)
TBCY interview about Forest Crime
The Brand Called You interviewed Tim Boekhout van Solinge (independent criminologist and consultant indigenous forest protection and of course the founder of Forest Forces) about organized forest crime and how to prevent it.
Tune in and learn how Tim Boekhout is preventing forest crime with the forest law enforcement he’s set in the Amazon. Learn about what is organized forest crime in this video and how Tim is preventing it with the help of GPS!
Dutch pension money involved in illegal cattle trade and Amazon deforestation.
Dutch pension funds invest millions of euros in the Brazilian JBS. Bills of lading that KRO-NCRV’s Pointer and newspaper Trouw obtained from Brazilian medium Agência Pública show that JBS bought cattle from the indigenous, protected Kayabí area in the Brazilian Amazon, where commercial trade and large-scale deforestation have been banned since 2013.
Read the full article (in Dutch)
In the struggle for land demarcation in Pará, indigenous people face new threats.
Brazilian news, originally from National Geographic Brasil is this interview with Dada (Chief of Maró Indigenous Territory).
The Maró Indigenous land has been claimed by the Borari and Arapium people for 20 years. This claim, as well as 16 other processes, are waiting for ratification by the Ministry of Justice, because they are stalled. Meanwhile, pressure from loggers and squatters continue…
Read the full article (in Portuguese)
In Santarém, indigenous people denounce deforestation in Munduruku territory for soybean planting.
Indigenous people from the Açaizal village in Santarém, in western Pará, released a video on Thursday to denounce the deforestation that was taking place in the lands of the Munduruku people. According to the complaint, a license was granted for a businessman to work with soy cultivation in an area which, according to chief Manoel Munduruku (chief of Ipaupixuna Indigenous Territory), is indigenous. According to the defense of the accused businessman, the area is properly documented and owner Ivo Ruaro has a license to plant grain.
Read the full article and watch the video (in Portuguese)
LiveCast Pakhuis de Zwijger
The Amsterdam Collective for Democracy in Brazil, together with the Transnational Institute (TNI), the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO) and Both ENDS, invite you to a live online event of inspiring and challenging testimony, reflection and analysis.
What does climate responsibility and ethical business really mean if the Netherlands continues to export unsustainability, deforestation, and human rights violations to Brazil?
This event will inform the public about Dutch neocolonial relations with Brazil, present a first-hand testimony from a Brazilian indigenous leader and discuss a set of actions for the weakening of corporate power and control of nature in Brazilian territories.
Special guests: Vandria Borari (Ceramist, leader of the Borari people, activist for human rights and the environment) and Tim Boekhout van Solinge (expert forest & wildlife crime, director Forest Forces, research fellow Erasmus University).
Fair Finance Guide Netherlands co-written by Tim Boekhout van Solinge
Tim Boekhout van Solinge has co-written a new report ‘Funding destruction of the Amazon and the Cerrado-savannah’, a Fair Finance Guide Netherlands case study on deforestation risks in soy and beef supply chains. Tim wrote the first chapter: Deforestation in the Amazon and Cerrado regions.
The Amazon and Cerrado biomes in Brazil have for years been among the global hotspots of tropical deforestation. The major drivers of forest conversion in these biomes are soybean cultivation and cattle ranching. This report shows how 21 banking groups, insurance companies and pension funds active on the Dutch market are involved in soy- and beef-driven deforestation in these regions and how they are dealing with this issue.