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Città Nuova’s Costanzo Donegana reports on the humanitarian and ecological crisis provoked by the exploitation of the Amazon rainforest.

The Amazon rainforest is in fact a dream, a forgotten Eden on earth. And if you travel along its rivers, every now and then the illusion returns – that of seeing God appear behind some tree, strolling in the garden in the morning breeze, chatting with Adam and Eve. The sensation arises again as you reach a village of Aborigines who invite you to join in their group swimming session in the river or lie down in a net hammock to cradle yourself in the moonlight.

But, sad to say, the problem is that currently a menace is threatening this immense region and as a consequence, the entire planet. At the start, man was thrown out of the garden – now it is man who is trying to destroy the garden, trying to silence poetry...

An Ancient Virus

The Amazon is like a warning light, telling us that our common home has seriously been struck by the most dangerous of viruses. Two concepts of life are confronting each other in the Amazon. The first, the poetic concept, is expressed by Davi Yanomami: ‘I descend from the ancient Yanomami people. I live in the forest where my ancestors lived before me. I never tell the white people that I discovered the forest! The earth has always existed before me. And I don’t say, “I discovered this land and because I laid my eyes on this land, it belongs to me!” The heavens existed before I came into being and I do not say “I discovered the heavens”. All things existed from the very beginning. I simply affirm that I too, am nurtured by them.’ The tribal Indios in their religious vision consider the Earth as the Big Mother who welcomes and nurtures all, and as such must be loved and respected, with the consequence of creating mutual respect where the goods of the earth belong to all.

The Death of Poetry

With the second concept, on the other hand, we find the ‘whites’, many of whom consider the Earth and its riches (including people) merely from the economic viewpoint, as opportunities to be exploited to produce ever bigger profits, with no consideration for the environmental and social harm arising from this. The Earth is an object only to be bought and sold, speculated on and to be squeezed to the last drop with no regard for those who have settled there: people, animals and trees. This is the death of poetry.

The consequence of this predatory logic lies before our eyes as the news reaches us, causing great anxiety: savage deforestation (equal to the combined areas of Italy and Germany), fires, water and air pollution, and the extinction of animals and plants. The most recent plunder was in the name of organic agriculture, meaning the exclusive possession and control by multinationals of products and organic processes used for centuries by the local populations.

Those mainly responsible for the destruction of the forest are not only the logging companies but above all, the big landowners (soy farmers) and the cattle ranchers. (about half of the cattle of Brazil are in the Amazon) These production activities require a lot of land obtained through the destruction of forests by burning. This explains the immense smoke clouds that hide the sun for days above entire cities, causing lung diseases and aggravating heart problems.

In face of the threat of an ecological disaster, proposals came from all over the world to ‘internationalise’ the Amazon, a hypocritical worry advanced by those who have more or less used up the natural resources in their own lands and are responsible for most of the world’s pollution! There is an underlying suspicion that internationalisation is equivalent to occupation: the era of colonialism is far from being archived and forgotten.

Great Potential

A real and proper war is being waged in the Amazon, on the issue of the earth. But to grasp the extent of what is happening, it is important in my view, to note down some aspects to downsize the myth of the Amazon, full of rivers and forests. The actual territory certainly covers the forests, rivers and the tribal Indians, but we need to know that it is the region with the greatest indices of economic growth in Brazil and is one of the most dynamic in the agricultural sector and urbanization processes. Just travel through Belem (1.5 million inhabitants) and Manaus (1.7 million) to see the partly savage urbanization in to which the population is forced.

Forty years ago Manaus had less than half a million inhabitants. In Macapà, the capital of the state of Amapa, the population has doubled in just over fifteen years, reaching the current three hundred thousand inhabitants, and the list could go on.

The Amazon phenomenon is caused by great internal migration from other regions of the country, because of the mirage of a ‘land for all’ and that of industrialisation. In fact, the enormous production of cotton and soya and cattle rearing, the dream of easy wealth through gold mining and the growth of industrial mechanics and electronics, did their part in attracting large numbers of poor people and a few very rich ones.

Urbanization of the Poor

The fact that the Amazon is undergoing great economic growth does not mean that the population is living in privileged conditions. The masses of people pouring into the bigger cities cannot be properly accommodated and are forced to live in the favelas or in pile dwellings in the outskirts, producing what has come to be known as ‘urbanization of the poor’. Low salaries are inadequate to meet the needs of families; there is much exploitation, especially of women and children; unemployment and unstable work; unsafe homes, lack of potable water and schools, and inadequate health services. These and other related phenomena have led to the degradation of civilization and human dignity, which are manifested in violence, drug addiction, and crises of moral values.

We need to learn lessons from what has happened in the Amazon. It is still not too late, but time is not on our side.

From Citta Nuova No 15/16: 2009

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