Brazil: The Patron Saint of the Rainforest

00:05

The first victims of deforestation are the inhabitants of the rainforest. Unprotected by the state, they resort to their own defensive measures. Since October, they have blocked the transport of timber along the Arapiun River, which flows into the Amazon. They want to force the government to put an end to illegal logging. Often, the activists are risking their lives.

00:38 

OT

Marina Silva

Senator,Green Party
"I myself have never been threatened. But the grass-roots movements in the Amazon region are facing serious threats. Activists are often even murdered – by order of these powerful environmental destroyers. I am in politics, which is more a war of ideas, but the opponents are fighting by other means. ".

00:58
Marina Silva has been a Senator for 15 years in the National Congress in the capital Brasilia. For six years she was environment minister in President Lula's leftist government. She grew up in the rainforest and has an exceptional understanding of the politics behind it.

01:17
OT
MARINA SILVA
"My childhood was beautiful and happy - but I have learned the hard side of a life lived in nature. This has affected me. "
01:33 "I was free and at ease growing up in the middle of the Amazon rainforest. I lived with my parents and grandfather and an uncle who had grown up among the Indians, and passed the secrets of the jungle to me. "

01:55 Marina’s father collected rubber in the primeval forest of the Amazon. She was one of ten children who support her father at work. In her childhood she got to know that poverty, like the destruction of the natural living space, could also lead to illness and even death.

02:18
OT
MARINA SILVA
"One of my saddest experiences was the death of my mother. I was fourteen when the highway between Brasilia and Acre was built. By opening this route diseases like malaria and measles came into our area. Several members of my family died. "

02:34 When Marina herself became ill with hepatitis she was brought to the next town for treatment. It was her chance to learn to read and write. She went on to study history and joined leftist movements to protect the inhabitants of the Amazon. Together with the activist Chico Mendez, who was murdered in 1988 by the timber mafia, she began to organize protests. Marina quickly became an icon of the environmental movement.

Another activist was the metal trade unionist Lula. In 2002 he was elected as President of Brazil, and made Marina Silva his Environment Minister. With Lula she sought to ensure a more stringent environmental policy.

03:24

OT
MARINA SILVA
"As Minister I gained many powerful enemies. We arrested 725 people for crimes against the environment. For the same reason, 1,500 companies were closed down. About 1 million cubic meters of timber were confiscated. This upset many pretty powerful people. "

OPEN
03:49
OT
MARINA SILVA
"What is the difference between Don Quixote and me? Don Quixote gazed up at windmills, thinking they were giants. But I often fight against the giants inside the faith, be it windmills. "

04:00
Not only the powerful timber industry, ranchers and soy barons hinder the plans of the Environment. For the corrupt sovereign and powerful branches of the government the strict environmental requirements become a millstone.
Marina Silva wanted to make the environment a priority of the government. The project failed to limit agribusiness and the construction of mega dams. She felt isolated in the government and decided to withdraw. After thirty years, she finally left the Labour Party.

04:40
OT
MARINA SILVA
"I went to the Green Party, because the government, despite the catastrophic climate change, do not take seriously enough the need for sustainable development in Brazil. We still believe in the outdated concept of progress through unbridled industrialization, as if our natural resources are infinite. They are not infinite! We have reached our limit - we need new answers! "

05:07
In order to enforce a change of direction, Marina now wants to nominate herself for the presidency. The current President Lula is very popular, but the Constitution does not allow him to compete again in this year’s elections. In front of his residence in Brasilia, the Brazilians enjoy taking photographs. No one knows who will move in here next. Marina Silva is one of the possibilities.

(VOX POP, an OT successive :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: )
05:38
OT
Almir Franco
Pensioner
She has had many bitter experiences in her life; she was abandoned by her own party. I think she has the potential of becoming a great leader.

05:50
OT
Oscar Batalha
Pensioner
I know who she is. I know the area where she was born. She is a militant woman, very competent.

05:59
OT
Marilda Marciria
Official
 She is a politician, and yet not corrupt like other candidates we have had before in Brazil.

06:07
OT
Iagaro Martins
Officials
I do not share their view of the world. I believe that Brazil should still achieve its economic potential to develop further and faster.

06:19
OT
Raiana Olivera
Financial Advisor
Marina Silva pleases me very much, mainly because of her ecological awareness, and because she is very intelligent. But I cannot imagine her as president.

06:33
OT
Oscar Batalha
 I think she would have to prepare herself better. To govern such a huge country like Brazil, the fifth largest country in the world, is no easy matter.

06:54

It is not easy for Marina Silva to convince her compatriots that the destruction of nature is the wrong way to solve the social and economic problems of the country.

07:08

Her tireless arguments for the preservation of the rainforest were not taken seriously for a long time. Yet now, with the Green party becoming the key opposition, it has made the debate about the environment a central theme of the election campaign. Even the government now seems to be recognizing the problem.

07:45
OT
Gerson Almeida
Brazilian State
 "It is no easy task. But Brazil is determined to preserve the Amazon rainforest. We have significantly improved our environmental awareness in recent years, and we have Marina Silva largely to thank. Her resignation from the government will not stop our environmental policy. On the contrary, we will continue to make environmental progress, and Brazil will agree in Copenhagen to specific emission targets. "

08:16

Before the climate summit President Lula announced that the clearing of the rainforest is expected to decline by 60%. Nearly 40% of Brazilians voted to reduce greenhouse gases by 2020.

08:30
OT
Marina Silva
"We have the ability to take concrete measures. The problem is that we do not. Rich countries have money and know-how and technology - but they do not take the necessary steps to reduce CO2 emissions. You are a terrible role model. Developing countries are now responsible for more than half the world’s gas emissions. You take the bad example of developing countries as a pretext to argue that they can do nothing to reduce industrialisation because they still have to fight poverty in their population. This is very worrying ".

INSERTS:
Julieta Rudich (editors, camera)
Milena Spicka (cut)
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