"The unprecedented loss of old growth forest is a catastrophe
of global proportion. It hastens climate change, obliterates the
habit of millions of species, and lays waste to the homelands
and way-of-life of traditional forest peoples. The spirit of Chico
Mendes lives on in everyone who stands up against this senseless
destruction, and if we join together we can protect the Amazon
as a lasting memorial to Mendes' vision."
- Randall Hayes, President, Rainforest Action Network
In the ten years since the assassination of Brazilian environmental
leader Chico Mendes, the Amazon rainforest he died to protect is
in greater danger of destruction than ever, environmentalists fear.
Despite an outpouring of public support for rainforest conservation,
commercial logging operations in the Amazon's old growth forests
still clear an area the size of Delaware each year, and oil exploration
threatens to disrupt delicate ecosystems and traditional indigenous
communities all across the Amazon basin.
"Citizens of the industrialized North already realize that
we must drastically reduce our demand for old growth forest products
and insist on sustainable forms of energy, " said Rainforest
Action Network founder Randall Hayes, "but until transnational
corporations follow suit we cannot guarantee that Chico Mendes did
not die in vain."
Chico Mendes was a leader of the movement in Brazil to establish
protected forest reserves for extracting sustainable natural products,
such as tree-rubber. Previously, vast tracks of rainforest were
being clearcut-logged and converted into cattle pastures. He was
shot to death December 22, 1988, by two cattle ranchers, one of
whom remains at large.
"Human emissions of greenhouse gases continue unabated, due
largely to deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels,"
Hayes noted, "and average global temperatures have been steadily
rising. The fires and droughts that have ravaged Brazil, Mexico,
Indonesia, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Russia, Africa, Canada
and Florida this past year may be a sign that we are already well
on our way to a climate nightmare in the 21st century."
Data from the United Nations-sponsored International Panel on Climate
Change indicate that we can burn only 25 percent of known fossil
fuel deposits before incurring the worst effects of climate change.
Only 22 percent of the world's old growth forests remain intact;
in the United States, less than 4 percent of the old growth forests
are still standing. Rainforest Action Network is calling for an
end to continued logging of remaining old growth forests in order
to challenge companies to stop selling old growth products.
Rainforest Action Network (RAN)
works to protect the
Earth's rainforests and support the rights of their inhabitants
through
education, grassroots organizing and non-violent direct action.
©Rainforest Action Network, 1998.
