Webinar: Bolsonaro and Brazil’s climate and Covid-19 crises

Adriana Ramos, Douglas Belchior, Eliane Brum, Erika Berenguer, Jay Griffiths, The event will be mediated by Jonathan Watts.

• Start  Wednesday 19 May 2021 4:00pm
• Finish    Wednesday 19 May 2021 5:30pm

Brazil is going through extremely concerning crises that need more of the world’s attention.

In 2020, the country registered the highest level of deforestation of the Amazon in 12 years. The spike in deforestation is related to the Brazilian government and allies’ efforts to legalize the private occupation of public land and, consequently, the illegal deforestation of the Amazon. Also, it is the result of the dismantling of environmental policies, of traditional people’s rights and of the drastic reduction or freezing of funds for the protection of the forests and local communities in the last years, worsened by the persecution of environmental activists and Indigenous leaders more recently.

The country is now also a global threat due to Covid-19, which represents the worst healthcare breakdown in Brazil’s history. Covid-19 has been responsible for over 400,000 deaths, the world’s second-highest death toll from the pandemic – sadly including celebrated Amazon-based photographer Lilo Clareto, to whom we will pay homage at the event.

In order to discuss how Brazilians have been deeply affected by this catastrophic moment and responding to it, we are organising a webinar with prominent Brazilian civil society representatives: an indigenous leader, an environmentalist, a journalist and a scientist.

The event will also be an opportunity to connect Brazilian national voices with the reflections and work of environmental organisations and writers in the UK, ahead of COP26, which will take place later this year.

Live interpretation into English and Portuguese will be available.

This event is hosted by Global Canopy, Oxford Centre for Tropical Forests, School of Geography and the Environment, and Oxford Biodiversity Network.

Speakers

Adriana Ramos, Policy and Law Coordinator of Instituto Socioambiental (ISA) and member of the coordination committee of the Climate Observatory, a Brazilian coalition of nearly 60 civil society organizations.

Douglas Belchior, History professor, founder of Uneafro Brasil, and member of Brazil’s Black Coalition for Rights, a political network that brings together over 150 organizations and collectives of the black movement, leading the emergency campaign There Are Hungry People, to raise funds against the rise of hunger, misery and violence during Covid-19.

Eliane Brum, writer, journalist, and documentary filmmaker, with over forty journalism prizes and honors, who is a columnist for El País and collaborates with The Guardian and The New York Times. Eliane also published in English ‘The Collector of Leftover Souls – Dispatches From Brazil’ (Granta) and ‘One Two’ (Amazon Crossing).

Erika Berenguer, Senior Research Associate at The Environmental Change Institute of the University of Oxford and member of the Sustainable Amazon Network, composed of researchers of more than 30 institutions in Brazil and abroad, created to apply scientific evidence as a way to strengthen sustainability in the Amazon region.

Jay Griffiths, British award-winning writer, author of ‘Wild, an Elemental Journey’, ‘Kith: The Riddle of the Childscape’ and ‘Why Rebel’, also a regular contributor to the environment page of The Guardian.

Niki Mardas, Executive Director of Global Canopy.

Sonia Guajajara, Brazilian indigenous leader, coordinator of Brazil’s Articulation of Indigenous Peoples (APIB).

The event will be mediated by the Global Environment Editor of The Guardian, Jonathan Watts.

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