Deep in the Brazilian Amazonas reigns Curupira: an all-powerful goddess, the Mother of the Forest and the guardian of all living beings.
Told through the voices of the Borarí people, this newest WaterBear Original invites us to rekindle our relationship with Mother Nature and protect our shared home.
The newest film starring Forest Forces guardians (12 mins) is out now. Watch Curupira trailer here and the full film for free in Waterbear.
On Sunday 9th of October, Teatro Mungange is hosting a preview of ‘The Letter’; a documentary featuring Chief Dada and Pope Francis made in collaboration with Laudato Si and Off the Fence production company. Joining the event is Chief Dada himself, his companions, and Forest Forces founder Tim Boekhout van Solinge.
Chief Dadá is on a two-week tour across Europe to share his story and vision of a sustainable and just future. Among many things, his agenda includes talking at the Blue Earth Summit and Wildscreen festival in Bristol, and watching the premiere of ‘The Letter’ in the Vatican with Pope Francis. After filming the documentary during the peaks of the pandemic, they are reunited to see the result of their powerful alliance, and advocate loudly for taking action against the planetary crisis.
At Teatro Munganga, watch the preview of ‘The Letter’ and join in the conversation about how developments of illegal deforestation and logging in the Amazon has impacted its inhabitants and ecology with Dr. Tim Boekhout van Solinge and Chief Dadá. Chief of the Noke Koi and Katuquina indigenous people from Gregório River in Brazil, Kamarati, will also be there to perform traditional songs and chants.
We look forward to an inspiring evening full of stories from the forest and to come together for such an important mission – to protect and stand for nature.
Tickets: 15 eur. All funds will donated to Forest Forces Foundation to act upon the devastating effect of deforestation and its growing threats. Find out more about donations here.
This June, four representatives of environmental organizations (including Forest Forces and WWF Brasil) had a debate on how to best fight forest crime in the World Rainforest Day Summit
Nearly 500 people attended the event on the 22nd of June. At the summit, director of Forest Forces Dr. Tim Boekhout van Solinge argues why technological advances such as satellites fail to stop illegal logging (23:12), and explains the methods employed at Forest Forces. Maintaining an affordable, effective and simple approach, listen in at 38:27 to learn more about how Forest Forces is successful in leading forest crime prevention actions without collaborating with corrupt governmental institutions.
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!
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.
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.
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 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 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.
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…
