From WolfWikis

Contents 1 Amazon Rainforest Organizations 1.1 Non-Profit Organizations/Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) 1.1.1 Amazon Watch 1.2 Governmental Organizations 1.2.1 IBAMA 1.3 International Organizations 1.3.1 Greenpeace International 1.3.2 Rainforest Action Network 1.4 Land Reform Movements 1.4.1 Landless Workers’ Movement 1.5 References

Amazon Rainforest Organizations

Non-Profit Organizations/Non-Government Organizations (NGOs)

Non-Profit Organizations/Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) lead the way in environmental awareness in the Amazon rainforest. Most non-profits have a unique specialization when it comes to their cause. They aid in their specific field of interest to help towards the greater picture. The Amazon Rainforest has several key non-profit organizations that fight to protect the land.

Amazon Watch

Amazon Watch is an NGO based in San Francisco, CA which works to defend the indigenous peoples of the Amazon rainforest and raise awareness of the impacts of industrial development on their lands.

^[1] The Amazon Watch has two active teams who deal with rainforest problems. The Amazon Communications Team (ACT) trains Amazonian indigenous and environmental leaders to defend their homelands from destructive development. Using digital communications equipment, the ACT displays rainforest issues to domestic and international news media. The other team is the Mobile Team. The Mobile Team brings the communications equipment to rainforest groups who would otherwise have no form of formal communication.^[3] They have worked on many successful projects, including:

• Financing for destructive Camisea gas project in Peru voted down by US Ex-Im Bank
• Occidental Petroleum withdraws from U'wa land
• OPIC loan for Bolivia-Cuiabá Pipeline cancelled

^[4]

Amazon Watch has created an effective “No Go Zone,” which is an area off limits to oil, mining, and logging, for the Amazonian community.

Other Non-Profit Organizations that specialize in helping the Amazon Rainforest include:

• Amazon Conservation Team
• Save the Amazon Rainforest Project
• APECA-Conservation of the Amazon Rainforest in Peru
• ACEER- Amazon Center for Environmental Education and Research

Governmental Organizations

The governments of all developed countries, as well as the majority of developing countries have government departments or agencies devoted to monitoring and protecting the environment. In the case of the Amazon, the major governmental organization helping is the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA).

IBAMA

IBAMA spends their time monitoring the sustainable use of natural resources in Brazil. They also research new ways of natural resource conservation and systems to protect wildlife, especially indigenous species. One of the most recent problems IBAMA has dealt with is the illegal trade of mahogany from the aging rainforests. A single tree can produce up to $130,000 in US furniture, so the lucrative deforestation maintains an eagerness to supply. Under IBAMA’s direction, an organized Brazilian police task force now curbs illegal extraction of mahogany trees. ^[6]

International Organizations

International environmental organizations have large memberships worldwide and base status as a social movement around their ideology, motivations to participate, organizational structure, and political structure. ^[7] The biggest of the international environmental organizations is Greenpeace International.

Greenpeace International

Greenpeace was founded in Vancouver in 1971 when they started campaigns against whaling. Today, they deal with issues including bottom trawling, global warming, ancient forest destruction, nuclear power, and genetic engineering. Greenpeace has offices in 42 countries and receives income through the individual contributions of an estimated 2.8 million financial supporters and charitable foundations. Interestingly, Greenpeace has no guidebook on how they plan their business, making them extremely effective or ineffective in the eye of the beholder.^[7] In their “giant experiment”, Greenpeace International has aided in many changes. Particularly with aging forests, Greenpeace has put forth a helping hand. Their website claims, “More than 87 human cultures have been lost in Brazil alone; in the next 10 to 20 years, the world looks set to lose thousands of species of plants and animals.” ^[9] Some missions they have to halt this spread include the cease of soy farming in the Amazon. In March 2007, the Brazilian government closed a large soy plant in Amazon rainforest after the plant did not complete an environmental impact assessment. Greenpeace marked this as a victory for rainforest protection.

Rainforest Action Network

The Rainforest Action Network is another international group whose campaigns aid for the forests, their inhabitants and the natural ecosystems by transforming the global marketplace through grassroots organizing, education and non-violent direct action. RAN gets their hands dirty dealing with multinational corporations by use of protesting and other demonstrations. Communications manager of RAN, Ms. Brianna Cayo Cotter, claims, "We went after large loaning institutions [like Wells Fargo] for funding destructive practices--for instance, Burger King clearing out rain forest trees to grow cattle feed; Home Depot pilfering the Amazon's wood; and mining giant Massey Energy Company blasting West Virginia mountaintops for coal, eroding land and destroying Appalachian lives." ^[11] In May 2006, RAN and Greenpeace International teamed up against Cargill, a US grain giant. They helped shut down a $20 million port set up in the Amazon River. Soy farming has overtaken cattle ranching and logging as the worst destroyer of the rainforest. In fact, two-thirds of the land taken over in the Amazon was for soy farming (4,633 acres), putting Brazil as the number two producers of soy in the world. ^[12] Fortunately, in March 2007, the Supreme Court ruled against Cargill, and environmental agents and federal police shut down the port. ^[13]

Other International Organizations include:

• Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization
• Monga Bay

Land Reform Movements

Of an estimated 23 million rural workers living in poverty in Brazil, 4 million families have no land of their own. One percent of the landowners own nearly half the land in Brazil. The expansion of soy cultivation in the Amazon led to the decrease in production of corn and black beans and the increase in their price, both staple foods in Brazilian society. ^[7] Social movement organizations fight against the increasing soya cultivation. The largest movement in Brazil is the Landless Workers’ Movement (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra/MST).

Landless Workers’ Movement

The Landless Workers’ Movement works to regulate land occupation. To halt the destruction of the Amazon in Brazil, stemming the flow of migrant workers out of this area is essential. The biggest culprits of deforestation are the landowners who set up soy processing facilities in the heart of the Amazon. The MST works for an agrarian reform to give plots of land to the workers and to develop a model of sustainable agriculture for the families. ^[15] Their march is emblematic of Che Guevara’s brigades with an estimated 1.5 million landless followers. The MST has members in 23 out of 27 states in Brazil. They have taught landless members about the dangers of globalization in the soybean industry and the need for sustainable acts.

References

Jonathan's Annotated Bibliography

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