The War over Wood

by cej9f
The title of this post isn’t something clever I came up with, but rather what the locals have named the conflict over protecting trees and biodiversity in the Amazon rain forest.Self proclaimed “Guardians of the Forest” (local rubber tappers, read about them here) are defending the forest that gives them their livelihood. And they are defending it against not massive scale deforestation, but rather the selective logging of high value wood by what essentially are criminal entities.

In an excellent post over at NPR, Lourdes Garcia-Navarro describes a day on the front lines. What is remarkable is how insightful and dedicated these local people are to conserving their forest, rather than giving in to the desire to cash in on its value.
“Rubber tapper Helenílson Felix stands near the stump of a tree that was felled by illegal logging. The tappers explained that this is how deforestation begins: The forest is thinned of its biodiversity, picked apart tree by tree.”

 

And it appears that despite putting up a strong effort, they are losing the fight.

One of three illegal logging camps dismantled and set on fire by Elizeu Berçacola and his crew.