Last week, as part of my non-executive role with a leading climate change charity, I had the great honour of visiting communities most affected by climate change and large scale deforestation in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil along the majestic Tapajos river.
Brazil is significant to the climate change movement, it is large in scale and therefore highly impactful, it’s harbours nearly 60% of the entire Amazon freshwater ecosystem. Many people rely on the rainforest and are therefore affected.
We humans are bad occupants of this wonderful earth, we pollute heavily, we cause fires that in turn increase our global carbon emissions and forced migration, we develop bad policies and politics that leave the most vulnerable even more vulnerable.
Brazilians are defiant and resolute, they are busy repositioning themselves on a geopolitical scale, they are reviewing their policies, protecting vulnerable commmuties whilst driving their economy.
In awe of the resilience and and community based innovation programs merging out of this crisis. We learnt about river based clinics that reach out to communities who have poor access to health care. Of women led programs that instill conservation and cultural values in communities.
I felt at home in Brazil, the food, culture, capoeira and a defiant feminism that is boldly liberal and unapologetically Brazilian.
A dark history of slavery reigns over this magestic country. Ruminants of slavery linger, the inequality gap is evident. I loved my conversations with Afro-Brazilian women who painted a closer picture of what it means to be Black and Brazilian. They reminded me again and again that I must return and visit Bahia, Salvador and Rio.
I am deeply grateful to our Brazilian partners for their warm hospitality. Thank you for your tireless work in protecting the Amazon and indigenous communities.
I will be back in Brazil, I have to.
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