Sold Down the River with the Trees http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=31&art_id=vn20050327130706498C379334# Sold down the river Andrew Buncombe March 27 2005 at 02:46PM The place where Sister Dorothy Stang lost her life fighting to protect the Amazon rainforest is marked by a simple wooden cross pushed into the mud of a track running deep through the jungle. The cross is covered in wax from molten candles. A few plastic flowers are scattered on the ground, along with a young sapling in a plastic grow-bag. Other than that there is just the constant sound of birds and the chatter of insects on an afternoon so damp and humid that one's clothes stick to the skin like clingfilm. It is five weeks since Sister Dorothy was murdered, allegedly shot by gunmen hired by a local rancher. And despite pronouncements by the Brazilian government, the cause to which she devoted 30 years of her life remains as imperilled as ever. Just last week the United States undermined a British initiative Just last week the United States undermined a British initiative to clamp down on the trade in illegally logged timber. Though environment ministers from the G8 agreed to some steps to try halting the trade and supporting the governments of developing nations in efforts to enforce their own preservation policies, the US did not sign up to all the measures. The G8 ministers were briefed on the murder of the 73-year-old nun from Ohio, said officials, her killing symbolic of the very fight for the future of the rainforest that the politicians were trying to address. For the February 12 killing in a remote part of Para state in northeastern Brazil did not happen in a vacuum. Economic and social forces are battling over the future of the Amazon, and the government of Brazil is struggling to balance a desire for sustainable development and environmental protection with domestic and international demands for economic growth. Meanwhile, the people for whom Sister Dorothy fought - the landless peasants trying to stop the encroachment of ranchers and loggers - are wondering who will now fight for the jungle. Vicente Paulo Suera, a farmer who grows rice and manioc close to where she was killed and who heard the gunshots ring out that morning, said: "We have lost a great defender. No one else will help." 'They apparently have lists of those they want to kill' The Amazon rainforest is an extraordinary and otherworldly place. Vast, dense and hugely rich in plant and animal life, there is nowhere like it on Earth. When you stand inside it, beneath vast trees that chase up into the sky, you can feel it pulsating: vigorous, alive, untamed. It accounts for 40 percent of the world's remaining rainforest and the Amazon basin contains perhaps a fifth of its fresh water. It is so rich in flora that an average 0,4 hectares contains 179 different species of plant. Critically, it absorbs much of the planet's greenhouse gases and produces 20 percent of its oxygen. And yet it is under threat as never before. Since 1970, perhaps 20 percent of its original 2,4 million square kilometres have been lost to logging and development. Campaigners say that 5 200 hectares are being lost every day - the same as eight football pitches a minute. And when you actually visit these slash-and-burn sites on the ground, the fire-scarred rocks and debris of the burnt timber left in the middle of what are now grassy paddocks being grazed by cattle, it is like being at the site of some terrible arson. The town of Anapu, 30 hours from Belem, is one of the flashpoints in the battle. There, as across the state of Para, loggers and ranchers are pitched in an often deadly battle against small farmers and environmentalists. Sister Dorothy's case was far from unique. It is estimated that since 1985 around 1 400 people have been murdered in land disputes - half of them in Para. Death threats are a way of life. "They apparently have lists of those they want to kill," said Sister Mary Gillespie, a nun from the same order, sitting in the front room of the humble wooden-framed house where Sister Dorothy lived. Francisco de Assis dos Santos Souza knows all too well about such threats. The 36-year-old, who goes by the nickname of "Chiquinho", is president of the local branch of the Rural Workers' Union, which worked with Sister Dorothy to prevent loggers and ranchers from illegally occupying federal land that had been set aside for the poor. Two days after his friend was shot, he received a letter that read, "Dorothy has been killed - you are next". He said: "When you are against the financial interests you are a target. It's easy - they invade. They take [the land] by force. The small ones cannot say no. If they do, they eat bullets." Brazil's President Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva had hoped to put an end to such violence. During the 2002 election, which he won in a landslide, he had championed environmental protection and promised land for 400 000 peasants. Despite the devastating recession that he inherited, he was also critical of taking international loans from groups such as the International Monetary Fund. But analysts say Lula has been forced to confront the political reality of bringing Brazil out of a recession and the pressure for growth. Instead of acting to protect the rainforest, he at least tacitly encouraged loggers and ranchers to continue their development of it. In the days after the killing, Lula announced 3,2 million hectares of new reserves. But nothing has altered the pressure to maintain economic growth - pressure that is not just domestic but international - and to maintain the jobs that the ranchers and others undeniably provide. Though he was opposed to accepting a loan from the IMF, Lula inherited a decision made by his predecessor to take a $30 billion loan from the fund that came with a series of stringent austerity demands and a requirement for Brazil to control the ratio between public debt and GDP as well as to pay off its huge international debts. Last year Brazil's economy grew by 5,2 percent. The Amazon is inextricably linked with Brazil's economy. Logging itself may account for only a fraction of Brazil's export earnings, but the rainforest is also a source of gold and minerals and provides much of the land for the recent expansion in cattle production and agriculture. Agriculture is now a $150-billion business and accounts for more than 40 percent of the country's exports. Meanwhile, Brazil last year overtook the US as the world's biggest producer of beef. Around 15 percent of Brazil's total external debt is owed to the IMF. An IMF spokesperson scoffed at the suggestion that the fiscal requirements attached to its loan - such as the need for Brazil to produce a primary surplus of four percent - in any way contributed to the tension and struggle over land use in the rainforest. William Murray, an IMF spokesperson, said any such suggestion was "outrageous" and "harebrained". He added: "Deforestation is not something we support. It never has been." Others see the situation very differently. Carlos Rittl, a campaigner for Greenpeace, said there were historically two important debts faced by the Lula administration. "One is the international debt and the other is the social debt," he said. "It seems the international one is more urgent. This causes all the problems we face in the Amazon. "Policies to pay external debts promote the development of agriculture and cattle ranching, which are quickly advancing into the heart of the Amazon. This is increasing forest destruction and causing social disruption." Sister Dorothy thought it was possible to have it both ways and use the forest's resources without destroying it. Her view was, in theory at least, supported by the Brazilian government. Everton Vargas, the foreign minister with responsibility for the environment, said the government's policy was based on sustainable development to allow economic growth without leading to wholesale deforestation. "Promoting preservation when at the same time promoting economic growth and better social conditions for the people, you will imagine, is a very complex challenge," he said. Sister Dorothy is buried in a grove of coconut palms close to the Anapu River. It would usually be a peaceful spot, but the site has been taken over by some of the 4 000 soldiers dispatched to the region following the murder. One recent afternoon, two soldiers were using a chainsaw to cut some planks. They kept stopping the saw while they moved the planks and, briefly, everything would go quiet. Then the sound of the saw would start up again. - Foreign Service o This article was originally published on page 13 of Sunday Independent on March 27, 2005