1-2 minute read

All photo credits: Gabriel Uchida, unless otherwise noted

Your new hero

We’d like to introduce a hero of ours: Ivaneide Bandeira Cardozo, also known as ‘The Guardian of the Forest,’ or by her affectionate nickname Neindenha. Cardozo has dedicated her life to the Amazon forest and its indigenous peoples. 

Since 2019, deforestation in the Amazon has become a devastating problem. The consequences are far-reaching for nature, indigenous tribes, and the air we breathe.

As the widespread clearing of trees continues, the Amazon rainforest is changing from a carbon sink to a source of carbon emissions.

Encroaching on the 2℃ global warming threshold, Amazon forest fires and deforestation threatens life on earth, yours included. If this habitat destruction continues unabated it will guarantee a climate catastrophe.

Brazilian President Bolsonaro’s economic myopia emboldens people to raze the rainforest.

In stark contrast, scientists say that the global effects will be dire as the Amazon faces a tipping point in its alarming transformation from a forest to savanna [1].

Image credit: Marek Piwnicki

Cardozo’s advocation for forest health is undeniable. In the early 1990s, discovering that corrupt officials were selling rights to protected forest areas, she co-founded an ethno-environmental protection organisation called Kanindé.

She continues to fight forest invaders and works to secure livelihoods for indigenous peoples with quality education and sustainable income opportunity.  

Raised in a remote corner of the Amazon forest, Cardozo learnt its ways first-hand. She had invaluable experiences which would shape her destiny, including month-long tracking missions to find and help isolated indigenous groups.

Now in her early 60s she remains committed, undeterred by countless death threats. Her organisation has gained credibility for its on-the-ground operations, with a team of expert biologists and indigenists. Kanindé also continues to nurture young dedicated activists from marginalised Amazonian societies [2].

Ivaneide Bandeira Cardozo still walks the forest, driving out the invaders who slash and burn. She is in one sense a fearless warrior, operating in a country with a disturbing reputation for killing environmentalists. In another, she is a guardian: protector, friend, counsellor, and mother figure to vulnerable indigenous people. 

Hope lies with the conscience of the world

As noted by Carlos Nobre from the Institute of Advanced Studies, University São Paulo, “Politicians in Brazil pay more attention to international pressure than the voice of Brazilians […]

The agriculture sector in Brazil is very concerned that European consumers won’t buy Brazil produce. This may be the ultimate way to stop the Brazilian government from a suicide of the Amazon” [1].

Indeed, Reuters reported in March 2021 that the EU has gone cold on a trade deal with “concerns over Amazon deforestation, and scepticism about Brazil’s commitment to tackling climate change under President Jair Bolsonaro [3]”.

If the US and UK follow suit, then mounting pressure would probably change Brazilian environmental policy for the better.

Under President Biden, it seems possible. Hopefully the UK remains resolute to the environmental agenda too.

After Brexit, a chief UK priority is economic security and the country has engaged Brazil to this end. Promises of trade with “clean growth and green finance” [4] cannot be compromised in the goal of economic steadiness. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch

The urgency of this matter cannot be overstated. Cardozo says “Bad farmers think they can commit all kinds of illegality because they will suffer no punishment… It seems Brazil has no law, that all the laws are in tatters [1]”. 

By all accounts this is a complex situation. Watch Vox’s explanation or read Jeffrey Hoelle’s Rainforest Cowboys for a deeper understanding of cattle ranching and deforestation. 

In any event, efforts by Cardozo and her organization, Kanindé, remain crucial, not just for the Amazon but the health of the planet. Find out more and support this essential work at the Kanindé website. 

This is it

Moksha

Amazon facts

• WWF (UK) reports that 17% of the Amazon rainforest has been lost in the last 30 years. That is roughly the size of France.

• Watch how WWF and indigenous people are using drones to tackle deforestation

Sources

1. Amazon rainforest fires: global leaders urged to divert Brazil from 'suicide' path. August 2019. The Guardian. 

2. Biography: Ivaneide Bandeira Cardozo. skoll.org

3. Analysis: Twenty years on, EU turns cold on Mercosur trade deal. March 2021. Reuters.

4. UK and Brazil to boost economic relationship. December 2020. Gov UK.