The Tablet Interview

Voice of the forest

Brazil is growing fast. But with economic growth, there is usually a price to pay and the Amazon rainforest is under threat of deforestation. One of the countrys leading campaigners, Archbishop Moacyr Grechi, talks to Mary Colwell

rainforest. The connection between Christian life and conservation is mostly found in the religious communities that have lived there for many years, he says. So lets remember [the environmental activists] Chico Mendes, Dorothy Stang, Jose Da Silva and his wife, Maria, and many others who died fighting for the poor people and the forest. Like them and indeed, so many Brazilians Archbishop Grechi is passionate about the forest, and passionately concerned about the threats to its future. But he and his fellow Catholic bishops are not simply expounding a view: they have put their names and the power of the Catholic Church behind a drive to preserve it. The Amazon rainforest is the largest tract of rainforest on earth and is the size of a continent, 1.6 million square miles, two-thirds the size of the United States. Brazil houses the largest proportion, about 60 per cent; the rest is divided between Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Suriname, French Guiana and Guyana. However, despite its contribution to science, climate change, medicine and resources, over 20 per cent of the forest has been lost so far to deforestation as Brazil and the rest of South America undergo considerable economic growth. Dom Moacyr Grechi is vice chairman of the Brazilian Bishops Conference Amazon Committee and has been involved in protection of the forest and its people for over 30 years. As Brazil embraces the largest proportion of the Amazon, and is also the largest Catholic country on earth, does this, I wonder, give the Brazilian Catholic Church a special duty of care to protect the Amazon from destruction? Well, the fact that we are the largest Catholic country in the world does not

om Moacyr Grechi is giving me a remarkable roll call of people who have paid the ultimate price in their defence of the Amazon

tell us that much. Most people are just Catholic by name and many Catholics dont come from the Amazon, they are from the south. They are good people but they dont make the connection between faith and protecting the forest. For example, people come from Santa Catarina, 4,000-5,000km away, chop down the forest and take the wood with them. Caring for Creation is no soft spirituality in the Amazon. Sr Dorothy Stang, a Catholic nun aged 74, was shot at point-blank range by hired killers because she supported smallscale farming and opposed illegal logging in the state of Para. She is one of an estimated 1,500 who have died violently in the rainforest in recent years. Last year Adelino (Dihno) Ramos, a community leader who also demanded rights for the landless poor to farm sustainably, was shot dead in front of his wife and young children. Both Ramos and Stang were supported by the Catholic Pastoral Land Commission, specifically set up to provide help and advocacy to those fighting at the front line. The commission is an example of the Churchs commitment to protecting the Amazon, says Archbishop Grechi, but the Catholic Church does not work alone. The cause of the Amazon is a cause for all Churches in Brazil. For example, the Lutherans have a very clear position regarding the Amazon, as do other Churches. The bishops conference clearly supports the conservation of the Amazon. It can be valued economically, but we must respect the nature of each region. One cant simply take the economy as the main criteria. As Euclides da Cunha, a great Brazilian writer, used to say, man in the Amazon is an intruder. We have to treat the Amazon according to its reality, not as a colony to be exploited. In a laudable but rare example of the Church becoming directly involved in the political process, the Catholic Church in Brazil

is in dialogue with the national government about the new Forest Code, about which it is deeply concerned. The code, first conceived back in the 1960s, required just half of the Amazon forest to be maintained. This has been extended to 80 per cent, setting strict limits on logging in areas of high biodiversity. But the bishops conference is particularly critical of a clause that granted amnesty to those who had illegally deforested in the past. Archbishop Grechi believes it gives the wrong message to loggers. This makes theft legal it would be the end of ecological protection in Brazil, the end of respect for biodiversity, and will allow people to do what they want with the Amazon. The power of the forest is the sun, the heat, the water; these give it enormous beauty and wonder. However, when the forest is removed, the soil is destroyed. We have to respect the different parts of the Amazon. It is possible to raise cattle in some places, as in Roraima State where there are the natural grasslands, while in others it is possible to cultivate rice and beans, but not everywhere. Also, the division of the land should be just. Many people stole the land to set up businesses and that is (Continued on page 16.)

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(Continued from page 15.) where conflict happens. People without land, people that live in the forest or those from the south who want land here everyone reacts to this theft. And most of the time the ones who lose out and are killed are the poor people. Archbishop Grechi outlined the nine challenges the bishops conference has presented to the national government that it believes should be addressed in the new Forest Code. The first and most fundamental challenge is the maintenance of the climatic conditions of the forest. These control the climate in not only the Amazon Basin but the whole world. The second is to make sure water is managed effectively: 150 large dams are planned throughout the Amazon over the next 10 years which will seriously affect indigenous peoples as well as biodiversity. The third is to ensure just and appropriate land occupation. The fourth is to make sure the Amazon is clearly defined by its ecological zones so that all may flourish. The fifth calls for proper coordinated policies, nationally and at state level, across the region, and the sixth points to the international dimension and asks the whole world to respect and cooperate with Brazil in protecting the forest. The seventh challenge recognises that Brazil needs appropriate mechanisms and the right amount of funding to ensure that sustainable development can be implemented throughout the region. The eighth concerns the relationship between the

Amazon and the rest of the country. It is vital that the Amazon assumes its own development, with equal opportunities, and is not considered a colony that is dependent and subservient to the other regions. The ninth challenge is essential. It is to find a way for all people to live in harmony with each other and with the environment in the rainforest. That includes ranchers, plantation owners, small-scale farmers and indigenous peoples. Archbishop Grechi is passionate about the future of the Amazon rainforest. Born in 1936, he joined the Order of the Friar Servants of Mary and was ordained a priest in 1961. He

Gradually the world is realising that we are all in the same boat, so no one should overstep the limits
later became the Bishop of Rio Branco and was promoted to Archbishop of Porto Velho in 1998, retiring as the diocesan bishop last November. He worked directly with the murdered environmental activist and rubber trapper Chico Mendes and he has seen at first hand the intense struggle for justice for people and the rainforest. He is involved with numerous projects supported by the Church which help poor families obtain land and farm it sus-

tainably, helping them to grow fruits and nuts. Man depends not only on the forest and the water, but also on the environment that is created by animals, by birds, by fishes. The Church always fights for life; we shouldnt destroy any type of life irrationally. Leonardo Boff writes that we must take care of nature because man is part of this planet. The Church never segregates people from the environment, and would like everyone to have the same attitude as St Francis of Assisi who respected even the weeds. I believe that when we enter the Amazon we should have this same care. And we also need to listen to scientists, see what is possible to cultivate in different regions without unnecessarily harming any life. Of course, it is not possible to avoid some destruction, but we should do it carefully, respectfully and according to needs. He thinks the wider Church should know more about the Amazon, as it is vital for the health of the world. The earth is the home of all of us, and it seems that gradually the world is realising that we are all in the same boat, so no one should overstep the limits, we should educate ourselves to live a more sober life all of us. I Mary Colwell is specialist writer on the environment. Her BBC Radio 4 documentary Amazonia Keeping it Alive in which she talks to Archbishop Grechi is available on BBC iPlayer.

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