Mother Forest and the Street Children (Brasil)

Anita Studer

"When I first came to Brazil I was only interested in birds. After 10 years I discovered a new bird on the edge of a forest in the north eastern part of Brazil. I was with my biology teacher and he told me you better hurry up because in 10 years there will be no more forest. I had a shock. I did not sleep well that night. So I decided to do something for the forest. When I got up in the morning, I told my teacher, look I'm going to study the bird but I will do the contrary of what you told me. I will first try to save the forest and then I will study the birds for the rest of my life.

When I began to appeal to preserve the forest and mix with all these things, I got some threats. I had many, many pressures and some direct threats. I think I escaped because I am a woman. First, I am small in size - this is a great advantage because physically I am not a threat to these men who are not accustomed to kill women, especially small ones like me.

The Atlantic forest is a tropical rainforest, which covered Brazil's coast the length of 4,000 kms. Now we have only small reminders: 99% was destroyed. What remains is an area of about 7 square kilometers, 7 on one side, 7 on the other side, to give you an idea. Though, it gives drinking water to 300,000 people. But many people don't realize its importance, and look for immediate gains, either cultivating sugar cane or to raising cattle. So very soon, a project of reforestation came up in my head. It gave work to the villagers and at the same time, it deepened their consciousness - because planting trees is a long term process. 40,000 trees are now being grown. All are native species.

The small town of Quebrangulo, nearby the forest of Pedra Talhada, was founded in the 17th Century by a handful of African slaves who had escaped the inhuman conditions of life on the plantations. It is still an extremely poor town where the people's main concern is securing the next meal, and where the few landowners are not impressed by arguements in favor of preserving the last remains of the pristine forest.

Obviously I could not take care of the forest without talking to the local people. And there I got my second shock. About street children, abandoned children, and the misery in which they live. So I decided to do something for them too. It was like another responsibility I took on. I never would've believed it before, that one day I would go from the birds to the forest to the children but it was like a natural process. I could not save the forest without doing something for the villagers. I think. So I began to build workshops for these children and to make educational projects. The growing young men leave the village because 80% of the land is in the hands of three families and the rest is divided between 10,000 people. As the villagers are illiterate and not accustomed to big cities, they find no jobs in San Paolo and end up in the slums of the big cities. And there we have the second generation, the street children.

I spoke to the mayor of the village. I got his friendship also and it was rather easy because I got a donor very quickly in Switzerland, and the school was built. Some people ask, question me, how is it possible? How can you be active in social situations and in environmental projects? I think we can not consider one isolated from the other, because men should live in a sound environment. By the way, Pedra Talhada forest has now been declared a federal biological reserve, and the Brazilian government finally reached an agreement with the landowners that had been evicted."