For the new year to come...

Im working on a draft of the first 4 chapters of my Thesis. This video stirs in me, both satisfaction of being in Bahia and frustration of having to spend so much time in front of the computer...

Happy New Year!

The Brazilian forest code

It is not over yet, the brazilian forest laws is still to pass or not to pass. It is said to be the most rigorous forest law in the world that is now changing, but how much and towards what end is the question still.

The final vote in the Chamber of Deputies has been postponed until March 2012, closer to the World Summit in Rio in June and more time for spreading the word...

So for those new to the problem:

Brazilian Senate and Chamber of Deputies (looks like a majority still) wants to drive through a revised forest law that would:

• Provide amnesty for areas illegally deforested before July 2008, including riversides and springs, and reduce the obligation to reforest.
• Alter the definition of a hilltop, making many areas more vulnerable.
• Make it possible to obtain amnesty and exemption from reforestation simply through a declaration that the deforestation took place before 2008, with no requirement for objective proofs like satellite monitoring.
• Make it possible, in cases where some form of restoration is still required, to use non-native species for 50% of the area, which could fuel the planting of oil palm or eucalyptus monocultures and negatively impact biodiversity.
• Allow illegal deforestation to be compensated for through restoration in places other than where the deforestation took place, condemning whole regions to become 'monoculture deserts' especially in the Brazilian south and south-east.
• Allow highly polluting activities like shrimp farming in coastal areas that are fundamental to mangrove swamp ecology. 

Although President Dilma promised in here election campaign that she would not allow any new waves of deforestation in the Amazon the process of making changes to the forest law has been accelerating during the last year and the changes passed through the senate just some weeks ago.

Unfortunately, the vote in the Chamber of Deputies was postponed not because of the fact that those in have need to gain ground, on the contrary. Some green amendments were added to the new code but not even the slightest changes in favor of nature was accepted by the powerful interests with their roots in cattle and agriculture that make up a majority of the members of the Chamber.

Without Dilma keeping her promise, using her Veto, and without massive campaigning against the changes in the new Forest Code until March, we will probably soon be seeing new and encreased waves of deforestation in the Amazon...

Two workshops completed and some victories to be celebrated

Finally we got to do the first workshop with the community leaders and organizations present in Calabar. As usual when organizing an event it is the preparations that take you out, and we really worked hard in order to mobilize participants, have the right equipment and methodology. We arrived early, ate lunch, rigged our equipment and organized the placement of chairs… Fifteen minutes to start, we could only wait for the participants to arrive. State officials arrived, technicians from the communication boards came ready to take pictures and slowly the chairs became occupied – although not by the public we had hoped for. The community of Calabar, all the people we had invited, talked to both personally and on the phone did not show up in time. When half an hour had already passed, only three representatives from the community had arrived and we (maybe only me) started to get a bit anxious!

However, when the workshop finally started a man called Paulo that we had invited cited two poems, perfectly setting the mood for the tasks waiting. Our Director, Luiz Ferraro, held an initial speech and then we opened up for presentations. In the end about seven or eight different institutions/organizations where represented (The basket ball teem, the women association, the community library, the food cooperative, a theater organization etc).

Our objective for the day where to plant in the people participating a seed of inspiration towards different ways to bring the community together in educative, cultural and recreational activities and how this can be done in a collective and participatory manner. We brought to them some examples from other communities in Salvador where written material had been use to collect and share experiences as well as a video that was made to tell the history and heritage of the inhabitants in Bairro da Paz (The Peace Neighborhood). We asked them to reflect over the challenges and potentials inherited in the way the neighborhood works and what differences and similarities they felt existed between Calabar and Bairro da Paz. This way a discussion concerning issues such as stigmatization, history and culture as well as ideas on what kind of activities would suit the neighborhood of Calabar, the re-opening of a community newspaper etc. started.

Another one of our goals for the day was to initiate a mapping of local socioeconomic experiences, which is to be continued in the following meetings. We invited all participants to give us the answers to the following questions and put them up on the wall together as they gave us a more detailed presentation. This exercise was a important for us, the mapping process as for the organizations that participated because it generated that a lot of interesting connections where made between the participants when they realized how much they had in common and how they could collaborate in order to gain capacity in their community activities.

Finally, we invited the participants to continue the work by forming a group with the aim of promoting Environmental Education and social activities in in order to evolve the potentials existent in the community. They gave themselves the name Vozes do Calabar, (The Voices of Calabar) and when leaving the workshop we had already set a new date for the next meeting.

We left with the feeling of having helped to form a small, but strong group of community members with the potential of creating a continuing work with environmental education in the neighborhood. It will be very interesting to continue working with them!