Amazon Alliance

Documentary.net staff — Wed, 23 Oct 2013 15:27:11 +0000

Agriculture in Brazil is booming, with beef exports alone generating almost $6bn a year, and soy production set to surpass that of the US and become the largest in the world. But these economic successes are eating away at the Amazon rainforest, as vast swathes of trees are cleared for farmland. This is especially true in Mato Grosso, the state at the heart of the forest's southeastern 'arc of deforestation'. Here 136,000 square kilometres of forest have been cleared in the past 25 years - more than anywhere else in Brazil. After moving to Mato Grosso in 1996 and witnessing what he likens to an "environmental holocaust" wrought by bulldozers, chainsaws and fire, Texan rancher John Carter came to believe there was only one way to slow the destruction: working with landowners. Operating in lawless frontier territory, his organisation Alianca da Terra (AT) has now recruited over 500 ranchers and farmers who have signed up to curb their impact on the forest. Keen to supply the growing market in sustainably sourced produce, the members - who own a combined total of 30,000 square kilometres of land, which is an area the size of Belgium - invested nearly $10m in environmental and social improvements between 2009 and 2012, and are conserving half of their land as forest. When a new member joins up, AT's environmental analysts audit the farmer's property and agree on an action plan, which includes re-planting or preserving all riverside forests, building fire guards, reducing soil erosion and pledging not to cut down trees illegally. Anyone who fails to make the required changes is booted out. To help them comply, AT offers members everything from fire fighting training to business help so they can make a living without clearing any more trees. Next year they plan to start putting their logo on beef products that will only be supplied by AT members and which will hopefully fetch a premium - rewarding responsible farmers for conservation. AT’s dedicated fire crew also put out fires in reservations and national park, and have trained over 100 indigenous people, including members of the Kamayura and Xavante tribes, to combat fire. Thanks to the training and assistance of the fire brigade, landowners are nearly 40 percent less likely to suffer fire on their land after joining up.

The Crying Forest

Documentary.net staff — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 14:58:50 +0000

"I will protect the forest at all costs. That is why I could get a bullet in my head at any moment," said Ze Claudio Ribeiro da Silva, an Amazon rainforest activist, at an environmental conference in Manaus. Six months later Ze Claudio was dead - gunned down, alongside his wife Maria, on May 24, 2011 in a remote corner of the Brazilian Amazon. Renowned for standing up to the illegal loggers and ranchers who have laid waste to the world's greatest tropical forest, Ze Claudio had long known he was a marked man. Investigations into the assassination are ongoing, but few doubt he was killed because of this unflinching struggle in defence of the environment. After riddling his body with bullets, the gunmen cut off one of Jose Claudio's ears - proof, police say, that they had successfully completed their mission. The news of Ze Claudio's sudden execution - widely publicised on social-networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook - transformed him into a martyr for the environmental movement, both in and outside of his native Brazil. At his wake, in the Amazon city of Maraba, admirers hung a handmade banner which read "The forest is crying". Since 1996, at least 212 Amazonian activists have been murdered because of the battle to preserve nature or over of land disputes with wealthy loggers - an average of 12 a year. Using a mixture of original footage and interviews as well as powerful archive images of Ze Claudio predicting his own execution, The Crying Forest examines the forces at work behind this brutal death foretold. The film follows Al Jazeera's Brazil correspondent Gabriel Elizondo as he travels through the Amazon region seeking to discover why Ze Claudio and Maria were killed, and by whom. Elizondo, who covered the aftermath of the couple's murder for Al Jazeera, travels to the activist's former home, a rainforest settlement now abandoned by terrified family members and friends. He meets some of the region's "walking dead" - marked men and women who have been told they will die for standing up for the forest but who refuse to back down.

Rainforest Videos - The Documentary Network

Amazon Alliance

The Crying Forest