Brazils environment minister makes incredible strides in restoring Amazon rainforest: ‘We need a civilizational change’
{Restoring Amazon rainforest – Earth and Leaf Editorial}
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Marina Silva began her career as a rubber tapper before becoming Brazil’s youngest elected senator at age 35. Now, as the country’s environmental minister, she is making incredible strides in Amazon rainforest preservation.
As the journal Nature detailed for its annual “Nature 10” series, Silva became involved in eco-friendly efforts after meeting environmental advocate Chico Mendes in the mid-1970s.
The conservationist, a tapper like Silva, was killed in 1998 by a cattle rancher who had bought a rubber reserve with the intention of deforesting the land. Mendes, as noted by History.com, fought for the preservation of sustainable reserves and had foiled the rancher’s plans.
Silva, who is native to the Amazon, fought alongside him before being elected to the senate in 1994.
“I finally realized that all the social fights that I was carrying on — trying to give the people from the Amazon better lives and in making this region self-sufficient without spoiling the Amazon — that I needed government action, not only social non-government movements,” Silva said through a translator in a documentary by Goldman Environmental Prize that showcases her work.
Silva also spoke to the biological loss and social impact of deforestation, noting that rubber plantations could employ hundreds of people at a time, whereas cattle ranchers would hire less than 10.