Our lives in the hands of Walmir

Today on BBC2, the programme This World gave a story on the fight against deforestation in the Amazon forest. IBAMA, the brazilian environment agency, and, in particular, one of its leaders, Walmir de Jesus, are having a tough fight against local mafia, which makes huge profits out of selling illegal timber.

It is a hard work that of Walmir who puts his life at stake every day. He fights powerful economic interests and a culture of illegality, arrogance and prevarication. But as Walmir showed in the programme, there are alternative and sustainable ways to explore the forest and which do not involve massive deforestation. Walmir is a hero of our time. In the programme on TV, Walmir demonstrated determination, but also an amazing polical ability; he knows that he is fighting a cultural problem, so he never stops to dialogue with those that prevaricate. Maybe it is this remarkable political ability that is keeping him alive.

More stuff on amazon deforestation and illegal logging here.

Nuno e Chiara.