Ser Tão Velho Cerrado (2018) - full transcript

The cerrado is rich.
The cerrado is millionaire.

And if you go to those fields,

in this cerrado, in these lagoons,
in order to see the flowers now,

it is very rich!

Through the cerrado,
we have water,

life, sustenance, everything
through the cerrado.

The cerrado is the oldest of
the environmental formations

in the modern history
of Planet Earth.

The Cerrado has fully materialized
in its global formation,

with all its environments,

45 million years ago.



OLD LORD SAVANNA

The fauna of the
cerrado is specialized.

The flora of the
cerrado is specialized.

You have, in the cerrado,

many organisms that have dealt with
different climatic characteristics of the past,

with climatic changes,
and they survived.

And these survival solutions
are very important,

even for our survival.

There is an extremely violent
pharmacological potential in the cerrado.

From the cerrado I take off
the herbs to keep a good health.

I make medicinal soap from
the fruit of the cerrado,

medicines, homemade
vermifuge, expectorant.

I make medicine for psoriasis,
leishmaniasis, leprosy,

all with herbs.



I had an endemic disease in
the region called leishmaniasis.

I drank tea with the plants of the
cerrado and I treated it with herbs

and I was cured
of leishmaniasis.

The cerrado is an
environmental matrix

that is located in the Central
"Chapadões" of Brazil,

in which there is the biggest
floristic diversity in the world

and there is also one of the greatest
diversities of animals in the Planet Earth.

Its existence is important for the
balance of the biomes that surround it.

The cerrado is
considered a hotspot,

which is some very
few areas in the world

that are considered of
extreme importance

for having species
that only exist here

and that are under some
degree of endangerment.

Canela-de-Ema is a plant
of slow growth

and that can live for more
than a thousand years.

Then, in a field where you
see a lot of Canela-de-Ema,

a tractor never got in there.

They were born before
the tractor was invented

And this very old being
received very recently,

a few thousands
of years ago,

the visit, and it
was not a visit,

of a very new being,
who is here to stay.

This new being is the man.

And the presence of the man...

has dramatically changed
the structure of the cerrado,

its cover, and its life.

Everyone says,
"Oh, they're destroying the Amazon."

Dude, what they're doing with
the cerrado is a lot worse

and a lot faster.

The cerrado has reached
its evolutionary climax.

This means that,
once degraded,

it never recovers in the
fullness of its biodiversity.

What was the original
cover of the cerrado,

currently 50% do
not exist anymore

than the delimitations of the
biome according to IBGE.

It has already reached an almost
irreversible extinction process.

What remains are small patches of
preserved area in the conservation units.

The EPA of Pouso Alto is the
largest EPA in the state of Goiás.

It covers an area of
872,000 hectares,

which is one of the last refuges
of cerrado in the country.

We are what remained
of the Brazilian cerrado.

What remained of these lands
that took millions of years to grow

and which were destroyed
in the entire state of Goiás,

Mato Grosso, Minas Gerais,
in whole Brazil.

EPA is a conservation unit of
the group of sustainable use

which the main goal is to order
the occupation of the territory.

Activities within this conservation unit

should be the basis for conservation.

What can and cannot be done in this
EPA is determined by a handling plan.

So, the key to an EPA is
a broad articulation,

with various sectors of
society living in the EPA,

and the development
of agreements.

The handling plan is a great
agreement to coexist in the EPA.

The handling plan
initially proposed

is practically the institutionalization
of environmental crimes.

So that's why we are fighting
for us to have a handling plan

that is consistent with
the EPA proposal.

One of the focal points is the
institution of conservation unit.

It aims at improving the quality
of life of the populations involved.

The fight is about to make,
in the first place,

the council of the Pouso Alto
EPA becomes representative,

because, nowadays, it is
composed of powerful farmers.

Occupied by those
who don't care,

who are not concerned
about tourism,

neither with the
environmental preservation.

We don't have representativeness
of the tourist area,

the rural settlements
are not represented,

family and organic farming
are not represented,

the kalunga community
is not represented.

The historical site and
cultural patrimony Kalunga

is the quilombo Kalunga, the
biggest quilombo of Brazil,

which is in the city of Cavalcante,
Teresina and Monte Alegre.

Cavalcante arose
due to the gold.

At the time, 10,000 slaves were
registered working in the gold mines.

From this mixture
quilombo was formed,

by the runaway slaves, the abandoned,
and, later, the freed ones and so on,

and it remained
very isolated.

Kalunga, for us, was a suffering people
who came here to get hidden,

they survived and
here they are.

I'm proud to be Kalunga.

I was born and
grew up here.

And the things for us were difficult
here. Everything was difficult.

We had to take care of things
by ourselves, out of the woods.

Take care of the stick root,
to survive, to take care of our health.

And at that time, the people
here were all healthy.

It was hard to hear
that a person died.

Nowadays here, what I feel most is that
the disease is more present than it has ever been.

Who is a honoured Kalunga, truly,
continues Kalunga until today, using the tradition.

Both in medicinal plants,
in the way of living, and in culture.

What has changed today in Kalunga
is the improvement, the quality of life,

I know it has to improve
even more, but it has been.

Because sometimes people
confuse culture with poverty.

We must always preserve
our culture and not poverty.

Every Kalunga is suffered,

in the way that one gets better,
I want them all to get better too.

I want more strengthen
for the Kalunga.

To improve our culture,
our community.

But, I don't want anything
that can destroy our community.

The territory Kalunga is huge.

Actually, is the largest quilombola
territory in the world.

272,000 hectares.

It seems a lot, but
it is still small,

considering that many descendants of
the quilombolas do not have a demarcated land,

or are outside the
kalunga territory.

I was born and raised in
the village of São José.

I made my living working,

sweating, carrying the
hoe and the ax, planting.

And here I have
my hens, my cows.

And the land that I sold I got from
my grandfather's great-grandfather,

and I sold to the
mining company.

Here is a field of
manganese extraction.

The biggest manganese deposit
of the Goiás State is located here.

This is the manganese, that
is extracted from the flagstone.

It is an iron alloy.

Without this ore here, we're not able
to travel by airplanes or to drive a car.

I would be against the extraction
if it could cause damages,

if it had impact.

But it has a minimal impact.

This material can come
back to the same hole

where that flagstone
had been broken.

The residue is a fertilizer.

You can mix in the land
and plant any forestation.

Look, that was residue, look
how beautiful the trees are now.

The local population still has a very
limited vision about environmental issues.

Take a look at the problem
that happened in Mariana.

Then, at the moment that a project, that
we receive that stack of paper from EIA-RIMA,

we, the society, have the obligation
to observe all the details.

We depend on this to have a better
chance of stopping the greed of mining.

But to prevent it, I think,
particularly, that it is very unlikely.

Unfortunately, in Cavalcante,

all the history of the city has
one strong link with the mining.

This is a dry river bed.

This place means a
lot for Cavalcante,

because it was the first
declared mining of crystal.

These receding waters were all explored
with shovel and pickaxe in order to explore

and, therefore, silting up,
leaving it with this width.

There is a mining
company inside the town,

I think it's not
good for anyone.

This is an inheritance of
centuries of mining,

because they have taken
tons of gold out from here.

They had gone with the gold
and the city is still needy.

And what was left was this wonderful
stream, but polluted with mercury.

Paranã River is within the quilombola territory.

Gold, diamond,

there was everything in this
river and it was explored.

There were the ferries out there,

and nothing was given
to the community.

A mining company will arrive here,
destroy everything, take all the wealth away.

Leaving only the damage here.

Cavalcante has 300 years
of mining exploration

and it is an extremely
poor city until nowadays.

Who’s buying is
receiving billions

and who's working here is
almost being enslaved,

and helping to
spoil the nature,

on the verge of misery or
below the line of poverty.

So, it's not fair.

Currently, I consider mining as the main
threat of the Chapada dos Veadeiros,

in this portion.

My opinion on the mining
companies here in our territory.

My opinion is no.

Because of the bad things
that remain for us,

because it is still preserved,
but if it continues like this...

I don't know what's
going to happen.

The people panned
out a bit there,

later the police came
and took them away.

And we thought
it was good.

The people panned out this way and that
way until the water of Rio Paranã got toxic.

Cavalcante is a very
rich mineral city.

The city, as a whole, understands
that this activity is important.

it cannot be predatory.

Everything that is for
preservation is welcome

since they come with a measure, not of
destruction, but of construction, all right.

I make my living
from the ore.

I believe somehow that there
could be an area 100% protected,

and some areas that are already
degraded, and there is ore yet,

where people could keep mining
in order to do not create conflict.

What we need is mining with social
and environmental responsibility at all.

Despite of the mining potential
of the municipality of Cavalcante,

the sector that employs and
raises income in the city,

much more than
that, is tourism.

Tourism distributes income.

Then, really, in terms of
interest of the population,

in social and
environmental terms,

the tourism is very
attractive for the city.

One thing must coexist
with the other

until, of course, the
ecotourism be fortified,

and that the families here start
to depend on the ecotourism

more than on the illegal
mining prospection.

The Kalungas
preserves the nature.

They do not sell
the land to anyone.

Kalunga's land belongs
only to the Kalunga people.

And the Kalungas had always
needed this for their survival.

Like hunting, even getting wood to
make their own houses, fishing,

but not in a way that
spoils the environment.

We work in the
slash-and-burn agriculture.

One year we plant, the
other we reforest.

We plant five to six
years nonstop,

and then we leave that field
and go to another place.

In six years, when we leave the field,
this bud will have this thickness

and we will be able
to plant again.

You can see how the woods
had been regenerated.

One up to five years it is going to be
a bush just like this other part here.

And what we do is passed on
from generation to generation.

This type of land
here is culture land,

is an organic product native to the land,
no need to put any chemical product.

They are Creole seeds,
they are centennial seeds,

that people use every year and
always renewing this type of seed,

with which we also feed our
family and the neighbours.

There is neither poison
nor tractor here.

Here it goes by itself.

Everything is from here, beans,
rice, and corn to feed the hens.

My father taught me
to work like this.

This one ripe here, it's mine.
That is another owner's.

That is another owner's.
Those are another owner's.

There are thousands of owners
here inside this place.

We've planted this!

It had been 350 years
running away for the outback.

They were hunted mercilessly,
including by the mercenary Lampião.

After so much injustice, to question
the quilombola territorial rights is racism.

Eating wood root, they had
resisted and resists until today.

It is Africa,
the heart of Brazil.

In scarcity or in abundance,
the Kalungas discovered the super foods.

Special foods,
highly nutritious.

All the food of the cerrado, when you eat it,
besides nourishing, it cures you.

It has the power of healing,
it makes your body work.

When I arrived in Alto Paraíso,
I started working in some places

and began to observe the amount
of fruit that was being wasted.

I started to search a little about the
cerrado, along with the Kalungas,

seeing the potential that they took off
coconut oil, they took off the flour.

I got to develop some
candies, some jams.

I noticed that Jatobá would be
ideal to make coffee, a cappuccino,

you can make porridge, ice cream
emulsifier, creams, cakes, and bread.

Besides having a very good
and extremely clean nutrition,

you protect the environment
when using these resources.

Then they have a total sustainable
extraction, which will generate income

because, so far, they thought like
“Wow, but who will want to buy buriti?

What can we
make with buriti”.

This is buriti. You can make juice,
risotto, creams, ice cream.

This is a buriti cookie, coquinajá
flour and inside is a type of Nutella

made of guava
candy with cacao.

We try to rescue that in order to keep
this way so that the cerrado survives

and the people can see the
cerrado in a different way,

what can it bring
in our benefit,

so that our children and our grandsons
can know buriti, Baru, souari nut,

because this is also
culture, you know?

Everyone looks at the cerrado like
that place of twisted and dry trees,

but thanks to this there's so
much water springing up here.

You look at the cerrado and are convinced
that it is in a dry place, it's not.

The roots are
in the water.

The water table is very deep,
about 15, 20, 30 meters.

The roots reach there.

So, the trees do not lose
their leaves in the cerrado.

The cerrado, the cerrado roots
associated with the life compounds

contribute to
water infiltration.

Where does the water come from?
Some source? Where is the source?

It is the water that
flows from the soil.

The rock quartzite is a sponge,
when it absorbs water,

there is much space between the
parts of the rock to make it get soaky.

You have this “chapadões”
relief with very deep ground.

Then this ground is like you had
increased the size of this water box.

The fact of being in a plateau a little
higher also makes it works like an umbrella,

distributing water for
other regions of Brazil.

Water. What do we
do without water?

Without water
is not possible.

Water is life. Water
is everything.

Brasilia, the capital of the country,
is getting dry.

The water is already
lacking and soon

many congressmen from the North Wing
will be taking a bath with a mug.

To them, it’s all right, they are
there only from Tuesday to Thursday.

But and what about the people,
what is going to happen to the people?

Chaos. Sadness. And this way,
will people care about the cerrado?

Brasilia has always had
water because, all around it,

there was a backcountry,
source of water.

And now, not anymore.

Cerrado is like an old
man, a being so old,

ignored as an old man that
everyone considers senile.

They don't want to see, they don't want
to hear, ‘that's not my problem!’

What it seems is that
nobody cares about it.

You can't ignore if you don’t
have water on your tap.

Can you?

We are also aware that the
increase of the agricultural limits

and everything that it brings behind
is undermining the source of water.

You cut the tree
from the cerrado.

The water that is sucked
by these larger plants,

with these large leaves that make a
lot of water evaporate all day long,

dries that area and
makes the soil drier.

The hydrological cycle is not just a
function of how much rain is falling,

but also about what is the system
that is getting this precipitation.

So, when you take away a
system with deep roots,

which has a coverage diverse
enough for a simpler system

and which is also a major
consumer of water,

you reduce the
ability to recharge

and the ability of outcropping of
this water later in the watercourses.

Because this is one of
the legends that arose,

I do not know which agronomist
could have given this information.

I do not have any doubt,
I am sure enough to say

that this hydric balance is favourable
for the agriculture areas

using the techniques
that we use nowadays.

The exotic vegetation does
not absorb rainwater

as the native
cerrado vegetation.

It only absorbs that amount of
water enough for its survival.

That is why the recharge
of aquifers area

no longer exists in the
region of the cerrado.

The only thing that retains
water is the native forest.

Then, the more we deforest the
cerrado, the less water we have.

At least, 10 midsize rivers
disappear each year in the cerrado.

The Fazenda Gavião
area is there,

which is one of the biggest
land properties here in Goiás.

The Fazenda Gavião is
a large land property

that is very close to the National Park
of the Chapada of the Veadeiros.

Only in 2016, the governmental body of
surveillance, the Chico Mendes Institute,

has been in the area for three times
and they found unacceptable issues.

They had four,
four notifications.

All this area was an
imposing, beautiful cerrado.

And we can see some open fields
that had the chaining recently.

The chaining are two tractors with a giant
chain that takes everything that is standing.

And they passed this chaining to
cultivate the transgenic soybean.

And in that farm, there are
very evident denunciations

that it belongs to the state
of Goiás governor's father

Fazenda Gavião, right?
Yes.

Is the father of the governor
leasing here to plant?

Yes, he is.

Is it leased to him?

-He is Mr. Ferreira, isn't he?
-Marconi Perillo's father.

-Is he planting in that area? Of soy?
-Yes, he is planting a little bit.

-In this region here, he bought about five farms.
-Five farms? Everything to deal with soy?

Soy, cattle.

Why do you think that the roads are
being asphalted? Not for no reason.

There's a lot of souari
nut trees knocked down.

They built a "cemetery" of souari
nut trees there, giants as well.

And the souari nut trees
are protected by law.

Centennial souari nut trees piled
like this, everything piled up.

The shattered root, the marks of the
chains… It was during the chaining.

Two fines are still due for
damaging APP, of two streams.

And do you think that the people
at Fazenda Gavião, for example,

will now stop the illegal
deforestation business?

I do not know whose farm this is...

You do not know whose farm is this?

I don’t have all details.

People say the farm
is your father’s,

that it’s in your father’s
name, Sr. Ferreirinha.

I don’t know. My father owns
a farm near Colinas town.

But I don’t know what its
name is, if it’s right or not.

Also, I have already asked him to
sell this piece of land he owns there,

thus we don’t have any kind
of involvement about it.

There are five mandates of
this same PSDB government.

They support this
rural-supported policy.

It’s foolhardy we leave such a great
value heritage as Chapada dos Veadeiros

up to the decision of an
estate driven by agribusiness.

They are destroying environment,
an ecosystem, forever.

What worries me most is something
very serious that is the cerrado extinction.

A flat area, a deep soil area, an area
that has a propensity for agriculture.

Do I have the possibility
to open new areas?

It is morally justifiable that we
continue to do this kind of thing

knowing that there will be
consequences in the future

and we don’t change our way to deal with land,
to deal with conservation, to deal with the future?

What kind of
money pays for it?

Diversity doesn’t have price.

However, nevertheless, it
is sold, destroyed forever.

I preserve, I am punished.
If I preserve, I am punished.

If I preserve, everyone
wants your farm.

They want to expropriate you, they want to plunder
you, they want to make part of it excluding you.

And who pays for this bill?

What about the years of life a person
gave up on making a travel,

gave up on buying a car,
he could have sold it.

No, he preserved.

Then, I am defending the farmer, because
I am a farmer, I must defend my cause, obviously.

Preserve is the worst
business of the world.

No, it’s not! The worst
business is transgenic soy.

First, because it’s
a one-way path.

Second, because it’s a
loss-making in the long term.

The economic soy cycle on
cerrado lasts only 6 years.

If you do everything right, with culture
rotation and so on, you increase it to 12.

However, nevertheless,
it’s not too much.

As productivity is reduced, the
farmer increases his debts.

The contracts with multinationals
of agribusiness are long-lasting

and, eventually, producer doesn’t
achieve the goal of the contract.

On this contract, land
is a valid warranty.

They say that Marsal
lost part of his lands.

In fact, I haven’t lost any land.

Because I know how
to use the courts.

“The Way of Cerrado” is
the name of the project.

This name came up due to
devastation that is happening

on the way from Brasília to Alto
Paraíso on the highway GO 118.

And its purpose is to
make this denunciation

about the impact of
agribusiness on cerrado.

Naked body is our own
purity, our fragility

on that vastness of devastation
plantation that is happening.

“Cerrado - the savannah with
greatest diversity of the planet”.

Whole horizon is soy, all of it.
Notice the incoherence.

It’s a project that is showing
the way the cerrado is taking.

There must be an economic
return for those

who preserve and provide
services to Humanity.

Who is going to preserve for free?
Does anyone work for free?

Does any company
work for free?

Why rural producer
must preserve for free?

Is it possible to generate
production and do it with ecology?

Yes, it is, but there is a cost. The producer
is the one who’s going to pay for this cost?

A region in which there’s too little appropriate area to agriculture

and livestock certainly will grow
over pasture areas

and often a person will
give up of the cerrado areas,

mainly if one day we have a payment
for efficient environment service

and it’s paid to make this person think
twice before converting new areas.

Payment, isn’t it?

But this guy, Leonardo Ribeiro, didn’t
think twice before opening a new area,

even if there were
600 hectares of soy,

even if he had profited 11 million
Reais in one year, according to himself.

And he has deforested a lot

and for real on Rio dos Couros,
adjacent area of Brazilian Park.

Money for environmental
services helps, that’s true.

But the problem is
another one, it’s spiritual.

It’s greed.

Brazilian Forestry Code allows devastation
of 80% of a particular area on cerrado.

80%, this much.

And 85% of cerrado is
located in private areas,

in other words,
farmers’ areas.

Thus, cerrado
is unprotected.

The great culture that is presently
extended on cerrado is soy.

It occupies 90% of all agriculture
expansion in the last 15 years.

On cerrado, the risk of
deforestation on next decades

is about 40 million of hectares,
respecting Forestry Code.

Cerrado was cut.

First thing: there’s
already a climate effect, humidity.

Second effect: to
allow erosion.

We are talking about cerrado
soils extremely poor.

Today they are providing productivity
from most fertile soils of the world.

How was this done?

Through investment in limestone,
through investment in phosphorous,

through investment
in soil correction.

Another mistake...

excess of limestone
mobilizes even the soil structure.

Soil becomes more
friable, more erodible.

It loses nutrients.

You use what is technically recommended.
There is a technical relation.

You use what is necessary to
have a minimum production.

This varies depending
on kinds of soil.

Into one of them, you need to use
more, into another, you need less.

Because nobody would do an
agriculture with excess of inputs.

There could be a better nutrient
manipulation than what you have.

Because what you put in excess in
agriculture, that’s what I am saying, it leaks.

regarding phosphorous
and nitrogen,

or you contaminate the atmosphere
with greenhouse gases

(After an interference on native soil,
it will never regenerate again.)

or you make an eutrophication
on your hydric resources.

(Algae increase. They consume oxygen.)

You carry out the plough,
throw limestone to fix acidity

or throw manure to increase fertility,
then you change soil conditions.

Those plants that used to exist there won’t
be able to exist anymore, they will vanish.

That is why we say cerrado is
threatened with extinction.

And even if you can produce
those species in nurseries,

where are you going
to plant them?

There is no place for you to do
what is called revitalization

because area that is going to receive
this plant has already been modified.

The more manure and limestone is
used, more insecticide has to be used

because you have destroyed biodiversity
and plagues have invaded the place.

At the end, our plantations become
refugee for plagues of agribusiness

because they use all kind of pesticides,
all kinds of defensive, and we don’t.

If you have a monoculture on these
altitude fields, on higher areas,

then you damage the
headwaters over these areas

and harm everyone
who is below it.

And what we’ve been following
is the contamination of the rivers

due to these poisons that
infiltrate the soil,

go to the water table
and reach water.

You pollute a
table, an aquifer,

it would take thousands,
sometimes millions of years

to recover this water and
make it potable again.

We are the largest consumer
of poison of the planet.

This is serious.

In 2013, 265 million gallons
of pesticides were used in Brazil

A quote per capita of 1.33
gallons per inhabitant.

And there are 14 kinds of
extremely harmful poisons

that continue being
used in Brazil.

Poisons banned in
other parts of the world.

We became a drainage market for
poisons rejected by the rest of the world.

It’s a lot of poison.

Our insects are suffering in a very
aggressive way in recent times

because of the pesticides.

You don’t have this
pollinator agent anymore.

Without pollination, plant
can’t produce fruits,

and without fruits, it doesn’t
have a child to reproduce.

This simply takes to the
extinction of the species.

Whatever is the productive system
that is based on pesticides,

based on death, it’s
not good for cerrado.

It’s not good for life.

If it is an environmental
protection area,

how are we going to poison an
environmental protection area?

So, this is not the
development model we want.

We want a development
based on conservation.

Manipulation plan may restrict application
of pesticides by crop-dusting.

Manipulation plan may bring a prohibition
of use of transgenics on the region.

Then, without this protection and
without the awareness of importance

of these areas from
source of waters,

we really will be witness,
still in our generation,

of the extinction of cerrado.

And this compromises Brazilian
waters because cerrado, as a whole,

is responsible for 75% of flow
of main basins of the country.

One basin, in particular, has 97% of
its waters coming from cerrado:

the São Francisco River Basin.

From Minas Gerais to
Northeast region,

the “River of Brazilian
integration” is drying, dying.

But who cares?

I care.

If this Sertão Velho Cerrado,
water source, remains unprotected,

it may become the
tomb of waters.

And if you still have doubts about the fact
that Brazil needs a law to protect cerrado,

think about “Velho Chico”,
São Francisco River,

that supply 14 million people and is the
hope of some water for north-eastern people.

You think that we
are exaggerating?

Let’s see Sobradinho. It is
operating with 3% of its capacity.

But how it’s going to be
when this water ends up?

“Climate Wars”,
have you ever heard about it?

Some say that northeast
sertão used to be exuberant,

with forests and
plentiful rivers.

But why then today
it is this way?

It was degradation of cerrado, caatinga
and Atlantic Forest to plant cane.

Cane ended up, soil ended
up, water ended up.

People without memory
doesn’t have history,

without information and
they can’t defend themselves,

they can’t raise their
head and change things.

Water is life.
Water is everything.

It is inside our body and, still,
is seen as a simple commoditiy.

We have here the main
basin of the region,

which is the basin of
Tocantizinho River,

for which it was already asked a study
integrated of hydrographic basin of this river

for the implementation of 22 PCHs along
the stretch of the river Tocantinzinho.

Specifically, in the
case of Cavalcante,

it was analysed a single
river, the Rio das Almas.

The dam is Santa Mônica.

It would block the river that, later,
will supply part of quilombo territory.

This is Paranã.

It’s here that people from
Furnas wanted to do it,

but kalunga community
didn’t accept.

They were going to block
this big wall as the other one.

The impact of these enterprises on
these regions is based on three pillars.

Environmental, which is obvious.

It changes a river that is
rapids for a still state.

This makes us lose our main threatened
species, that is Brazilian merganser.

Brazilian merganser is the most
threatened species of the Americas.

Today, we have 175 to 225 of these
animals in the entire world.

It is a species that uses clear and
oxygenated water environments,

it has an accurate visual
sense to feed of fishes

and, certainly, the
construction of PCHs

totally changes the configuration
of environment where it lives.

One of the great lies told is that
hydroelectric is a clean energetic model.

It’s not.

Reservoirs become genuine
greenhouse gas factories,

including methane,

that is produced with the
decomposition of vegetation

of these environments
without oxygen.

It’s not renewable.

Because after hydroelectric
is over, what do you do?

Rebuild the river? It’s an
irreversible intervention.

There's the social factor,
where the presence of various men,

workers, impacts our social
system, our health system

and our education system.

Associated to this problem of
quality of life, lack of service,

a hospital that doesn’t work,
that doesn’t have potable water.

Security problems, violence.

“Violence that came together with factory”

“Belo Monte – 100 thousand inhabitants –
apprehension of weapons increased 379%”.

We don’t want this.

If a hydroelectric
is built here for us,

we will feel like losing
someone of our family, a child.

They already came here to ask us
to sign papers to be indemnified.

They went to my neighbour’s,
then they went to Brivaldinho’s,

moreover, Brivaldinho
was indemnified too.

The first thing they do
with local population

is to try to give the impression
that it is an accomplished fact.

A project that still
is in study phase,

that normally not even has a
process of environmental license,

they do it as a way to
manipulate the population

into not mobilizing themselves to
defend their rights, to divide the population.

Someone came here saying
that it was a government work.

I didn’t want to
sign any document,

but they insisted that anyway
we would be indemnified

and the work
would be done.

Also, it is about economic aspect,

considering our economy
depends on ecotourism

that depends on a region with preserved
waterfalls, with clear water.

Today, the river for me
is the meaning of my life.

Because I really depend on
people coming to visit the river,

coming to swim on it,
to dive on it.

Because the fish would disappear
and the river would also end,

here is also where
I make my trips.

I don't want to
be alive to see it,

because I think it's
going to hurt a lot,

it will kill me inside,
it's going rip the life out of me.

Today, the way the management
plan was presented to us,

the construction of small
hydros is authorized,

in the Pouso Alto EPA, in the
Environmental Protection Area.

99% of this energy will
go to other applications,

which are mining in the local for
industrial parks, for large cities.

We're not radically against the
construction of small hydroelectric plants.

We need to study it
on a case by case basis.

It is the pressure of those who will
gain economically with this action.

Arrangements made with contractors,
which I don't know if are really legal,

end up leading to the
application of this model.

The construction of small
hydroelectric plants

in the Tocantinzinho
River was authorized.

Rialma, the company owned
by the Caiado family,

is about to start the construction
of the power plants Colinas,

Serrana Bela, Concórdia, Bom Sucesso,
Harmonia, and Renascença.

All in the Tocantinzinho River.

You can hear the sound of
bulldozers destroying the cerrado.

And the left bank of the river
was completely devastated.

I'll ask them, with love and
care, for the love of God,

that they never make
that dam here.

Let us preserve our lives.

That's what we're asking them,
the Government, the president, congressmen,

that’s what I really ask, for the love of
God, take pity on those who suffer.

Don’t abuse those who
have already suffered.

The country’s energy matrix
is based on hydropower.

It was built from the 1970s.

We have hydropower projects
here, in Serra da Mesa.

Brazil’s largest water body,
54 billion cubic meters.

Serra da Mesa in 90 years won't be
able to produce electricity anymore,

because sedimentation
silts up the lake,

and that hinders the production
of electrical energy.

Although small, it will have an impact
on the whole plankton community,

which are microorganisms that constitute
the basic food of many other fish.

So, there's no way that can be
compatible. No way, that won’t do.

Today, we have two situations
that are different from the 1970s.

One of them is water shortage, which
is already a reality across the country,

and the advent of solar energy as an
alternative technology to hydropower.

Building a small hydro, because of the
volume of energy that it will generate,

it’s cheaper,
it's more profitable,

so the benefit-cost ratio is
better, more interesting.

The region of the Chapada
dos Veadeiros park

is included as the
second best location

in terms of potential for
solar irradiance in the country.

We have a dry season that is six months
of the year of full sun, from 6 am to 6 pm.

So, we can reject this enterprise

providing a solution for the energy
matrix that is solar energy.

Last year, that other farm over there
had several bulldozers felling all the trees.

And they left a few and it
was all turned into pasture

and we're being surrounded by
soybeans here, by monoculture,

which kills all the waters,
all plants and all animals.

And then we are, like, willing to
do something, singing, playing,

developing projects to raise awareness,
of environmental education.

People need to be informed,
because by informing them,

they get to know and, knowing,
they may be motivated to act.

It's a very special moment, creating
this new region called MATOPIBA.

It includes Maranhão, Piauí,
Tocantins, and Bahia.

MATOPIBA is seen as a large
area of agricultural frontier.

One of the great areas in which food
production in the world tends to expand.

In fact, a dozen large farmers were
the ones interested in MATOPIBA,

precisely for the possibility
of expanding their heritage.

Expansion occurred,
especially, in areas of cerrado.

Directly converting cerrado into grain
production, soybeans essentially.

So, today, the area that is undergoing
deforestation is MATOPIBA

and that is concerning.

We are transforming and increasing
grain production without deforestation.

Without deforestation.

Without deforestation.

It's not just the converted area.
It’s the degraded areas that were left.

It’s the marginalized populations.

I'm very sad. I feel very
sad about this injustice.

For being forced
out with brutality

because of some farmer who
says they own the world.

Today we plant 80,000 hectares.

There are 10,000 hectares of maize
crops, 65,000 hectares of soybeans,

3,000 hectares of normal crop corn,
and 12,000 hectares of cotton.

In the future we’re going to Pará, right?

Wherever we have to expand to,
we will, further north, right?

If we ever get to the sea,
then we stop, right?

So nowadays we are seeing a
process of land concentration,

which was not common, someone having
5,000, 10,000, 20,000 hectares of land.

Today, this is becoming
something common, isn’t it?

In MATOPIBA, a few have a lot.

0.5% of the population
has 60% of the wealth,

and 80% of the population is
considered to be very poor.

These families have a monthly
income of less than R$ 700.

What is MATOPIBA? You take the
last reserves, remnants of cerrado,

and turn all this into
production of commodities.

You will reap fruits for
5 years, 10 years,

and leave a desert to
future generations,

and to the whole country you will leave
a great economic and social crisis

of which we don't know
the consequences.

A crisis of hunger and thirst,

because in the production
system of Brazil’s agribusiness,

a single seed patented
by a foreign company

only works with pesticide
also from that company.

This creates a dependence link between
the farmer and multinational companies.

We create super-bugs and
to fight them, super-pesticides.

With time and the spread of this system,
traditional and biologically diverse seeds are lost.

And, thus, we lose any chance
of getting out of this system.

Diversity means survival, means
being able to continue producing.

Therefore, speaking about
famine is no exaggeration.

The velho cerrado
outback is not at risk.

The human being
is the one at risk.

The current agricultural and agrarian
policy forgot that the human being

is included in the ecological chain.

This argument that agribusiness is the
saviour of Brazil, increases GDP, is a lie.

It is the saviour of
the economy today.

But, in the long term, it is
the bankruptcy of farmers

and of a productive system of thousands
of years, its culture, cultivation and seeds.

When the Brazilian soy
is exported to China,

China is not buying the pollution
that we threw in our waterways.

We are not exporting grain.

We are exporting water, biodiversity,
and we are exporting soil.

What sense does it make that we destroy
the Brazilian cerrado to feed cows in China?

And with this fallacy, with this untruth,
that it is meant to end hunger in the world?

Development, yeah! We want
production, we need to eat.

But we want a production
without pesticides,

we want an organic production,
we want agroecology.

We want something that is in accordance
with environmental preservation.

We may have food, but we
have to think about the water,

we have to think about the neighbour
who is planting their organic produce.

That's what we’ve been discussing in the
planning for the management of the Pouso Alto EPA,

that we should have
compatible activities.

Most family farmers
are within the EPA,

where they will have to preserve
and need to produce and survive,

but agribusiness presses
in all manners.

And that’s why some people are
quitting the work of family agriculture,

they are going to other farms to work
as employees or going to urban areas.

Their children don't see
prospects to continue

because there is a very strong
pressure for them to leave.

How can it be that half a
dozen large farmers survive

and there are 5,000 farmers
in the region, 5,000 farmers.

Are you going to stay there eternally
dependent, dependent, just on salary,

on staying employed and leaving your area
and not being able to work in your land area?

The advancement of agriculture
is a necessary advancement.

Fortunately or unfortunately, it is
necessary. Agriculture is vital to us.

In fact, right here, in the
surroundings of Alto Paraíso,

there are several settlements with
family farming, which supply the city.

These monocultures do not supply
Alto Paraíso in any region here,

they are all for export.

The fellow does not
believe in what he does

because if he believed in what
he did, he'd eat transgenic soy,

with pesticides, and
give it to his children.

Ask him if he gives
it to his children.

Family producers produce much more
food, with much higher quality.

What is on the table
of Brazilian people,

those vegetables, legumes, those small
products, come from family farmers.

Agroecology, the basic
principle is the man in the field,

the social welfare of
that family that is there,

but it is also social welfare
here, to eat without poison.

It’s very good, isn’t it? Because we can
eat well, we can pass it to others, right?

Knowing that you are integrated with
society in a fair manner, you know?

You’re doing good
and receiving good,

you’re earning your daily bread
by promoting the health of others.

Residents here foster
this farmer's market

so that things work the way we
believe the world has to be: better.

The great thing about it is
the direct marketing aspect,

that is, those you will find at
the fair selling are producers,

there’s no middleman there
in front of you selling,

those are the ones who produce, you ask them
and they say: I used this, I used that, and that.

I work with my own
seeds, my own seeds.

I don't work with soybeans, corn,
no transgenic, I also don’t buy them.

Food should be produced
without poison.

Food isn’t compatible with poison,
they are totally different things.

They started with this
poison in the 1960s,

before that we produced
very well without poison.

Carrot, radish, arugula,
milkweed, which is native.

We get everything from the little
vegetable garden, take a look.

We have arugula, mustard,
lettuce, cilantro, garlic,

there's a boldo plant, this one is
cassava plant, this one is pomegranate,

we even plant beans.

Some lettuce, you know?

There are papayas, tomatoes,
I'm doing well for ecology, huh?

A coconut tree, the macaúba palm
which has fruit, down there is the buriti.

Around 30 days from now this
will all be full, you know?

Here there are
small plants of spice.

This is a vine of dragon fruit that
I am cultivating, they're growing up.

Pepper, below that I have pepper to
take advantage of the space, you know?

All without insecticide,
all pure, pure.

All agriculture has an impact, but it
may have, also, a positive impact.

Is it possible to have large-scale
production in an organic manner?

Yes, and with great
biodiversity too.

The organic system is much more efficient
economically in many cultures, beans, soya.

We have managed to reach a
near conventional productivity

and we have equivalent
production efficiency.

The non-organic, if you
don't have a transition,

then we have the part with integrated
production where we incorporate

conventional technical systems with
organic systems, having a middle ground.

Living from the forest and producing
food in the forest, with forest,

I can show that it works.

The human being could be
reconciled with the planet.

For we have disconnected
from the life of the planet,

thinking that we are intelligent and not
seeing that we are part of an intelligent system.

We work to create areas
of permanent inclusion,

and not areas of permanent
protection of the human being.

What you see with the growth of
agroforestry is the rebirth of nature,

the restructuring of the soil so it acquires
a life of its own and gains in useful life,

producing food for
countless generations.

The family farmer, the small farmer,
he doesn't want to extinguish the water,

he doesn't want to
destroy the woods.

He wants to preserve them because
he intends to continue there.

And when we study
agroforestry, permaculture,

when you learn with agroecology, with
organic agriculture, with family agriculture,

you see, I even shiver
when I speak about it.

Because when you learn these things
you truly feel part of nature, man.

And if we are organic
agroecological farmers,

we produce a little
bit of everything.

For example, today I make brown
sugar here during the drought.

When the rain season starts,
I have a lot of mangoes, a lot of guava,

then I should make guava sweets or
guava pulp, or from other fruits, right?

That’s a more traditional or more typical
or more regional use of different food sources,

this is an insurance we have
for adverse situations.

It’s the result of a long history of
coexistence with the environment.

I'm part of a cooperative, the
Agroecological Cooperative,

in the region of Chapada
dos Veadeiros park.

And in that cooperative practically
100% of farmers are family farmers.

It has more than
200 members.

We serve the Federal Government
programs for purchase of food.

30% of school
meals in the region

already receive raw materials
from our organic producers.

These are small
productions, you know?

Schools have a very great need for this
food. It’s natural food, you know?

We prioritize organic food.

And who eats at school?
Their children.

So, they produce their own food
and the Government pays for it.

The State needs to bring investments
to promote economic activities

compatible with the sustainable
development of the region.

That may bring economic
wealth generation

combined with the conservation and
preservation of the environment.

This development for soybean planting,
it comes, usually, only for landowners.

The workforce used is very little,
only a few employees are needed.

Soybean production is not a culture that
generates much employment, you know?

On the contrary, in fact the expansion of soy
leads people to go away from the countryside.

What we believe brings development
are jobs that not only bring dividends,

but that preserve the
nature of this region.

That include the family, that make
children who grow up here love this place.

There really is another model
of development for this country

based on conservation, based on
biodiversity, based on water,

based on the social and cultural
richness of traditional communities.

Here we have a small
sample of cerrado,

Chapada dos Veadeiros National
Park, which is where we are now.

When that park was created, during
the government of Juscelino Kubitschek,

it had approximately 700,000 hectares.

It received a series of mutilations
during the Military Government.

Today it has around
10% of its original area.

There are 65,000 hectares.

Today we plant 80,000 hectares.

And that's very little,
especially for the fauna.

What we have today in the Chapada
dos Veadeiros park is not effective

to conserve the
biodiversity of the region.

Brazil no longer needs a park.
Brazil, today, is a large preserved park.

Of the entire cerrado, we
have 0.5% of protected areas

of more restricted categories
such as national park.

An EPA, that category of
Environmental Protection Area,

we can't have the same degree of
conservation as a national park like that.

And about three years ago,

the Ministry of the Environment,
in partnership with the ICMBIO,

resumed the studies for a new
expansion of the National Park.

So those areas that we most
fight for conservation,

which are the fields of altitude,

they would be integrated into a more
protective category, which is a national park.

We already have a formal document
from the state government

in which the governor authorizes the
creation of the park and we will sign it.

We're going to be surprised
now with someone saying:

you see, now your property
is no longer yours,

Brazil requested it and you
will be paid God knows when.

The National Park was
created 60 years ago

and to date there are people
who have not been indemnified.

First, they have to analyse the
situation of the current park

and see how they are going
to proceed with the new park.

A park like this that is having
problems on its creation,

because of the few owners, it should
be said that there are not many,

on the expansion of the
park, there are few properties,

we'll try, yeah, to come up with
the best possible solution.

So far, we have strived to preserve
it and take care of our farm.

Now our objective is going to be our
lawsuit and receiving the money it is worth.

They are entitled to it.
The land is theirs.

I don’t want the land to not be paid.
I think they deserve the fair price.

The National Park has 65%
of its area in Cavalcante.

And today there is no gate in Cavalcante,
which is called the North Gate.

We're working on it.

And, with the
opening of that gate,

we hope that the park come to be effectively
an instrument for regional integration.

For the tourism sector that's
going to have major potential

for generating employment, opportunities,
because it will create new services.

It is fundamental to receive the
citizens of Brazil and of the world

here in the National Park
and in the Chapada.

It is essential that people
experience this complexity.

I think the Chapada dos Veadeiros
park is a place that is, like,

pretty amazing, with the
nature we have here.

No one would be here today if this were
all soy plantation. I have no doubt about it.

We are walking with the boys by the
waterfall, getting in touch with nature.

As for tourism, it is
quality of life, isn’t it?

This is very important in
preserving the environment.

The cerrado is the heart of
Brazil, it connects all biomes,

it distributes water to all biomes.

How come such an important biome
that supplies nearly the whole country

doesn't have a law?

Hence was born the
Mais Cerrado Foundation.

The first step is we manage to lobby for
the law of the cerrado, this is a necessity.

Our work is mostly
connecting agents, experts.

Making this interconnection
to strengthen the network

so the cerrado, really, is
included in the agenda.

I'm totally adhering to this
cause, I want to fight.

I was called cordially and
I call you all to join us.

Let's make this place here an example
for the world, not only for Brazil.

And not only Alto Paraíso,

but also the Pouso Alto EPA which
comprises six municipalities in the region.

When we got into this situation
of the Pouso Alto EPA,

we saw two inconsistencies:
the first was the management plan itself,

which was being presented
in an unsustainable manner;

the second, something that we from the Foundation
first filed a suit in the public prosecutor's Office,

was the lack of representativeness
within the Council.

Civil society had a very strong
mobilization, very important,

which required readjustment in the
studies of the management plan

for a proposal that is more consistent with
the interests of preservation in the region.

Cerrado standing is what we want.

Public Hearing to Discuss the Management Plan
for the Pouso Alto EPA – May 14, 2015

Alto Paraíso de Goiás – May 31, 2016

We are uniting the federal,

state, and municipal governments,
the third sector,

the private sector, civil society,

in favour of this common goal,

which is to open paths to sustainable

living, a life in harmony with nature.

With the presence of
governor Marconi Perillo,

with the support of the vice governor
and of the entire government,

the Pouso Alto EPA management
plan ordinance is signed.

Nowadays, we are
combining our efforts.

We are setting
cooperation agreements

to really put in practice
the manipulation plan,

which was so dreamed
and wished by everyone.

In respect to discussion and the
manner to find ways in sustainability,

this manipulation
plan is a benchmark.

There were victories, undoubtful.

All APA headwaters will have an
increase of their APPs from 30 to 100 m.

Main rivers of the region will
also have their APPs increased.

This protected forest strip is important
to water resources to biodiversity.

There is also space for soy
monoculture, but not everywhere.

And there are intangible areas, where it
is not possible any human intervention.

It’s necessary that everyone is aware about
the importance of environment preservation.

This cannot be an ecologist
thing, this has to be everyone’s.

Another advance, the
creation of Work Groups.

It is the only manipulation
plan that you complete,

and work groups keep discussing
to when revision time comes.

It is a work group that is
discussing agriculture toxin,

also discussing the transition
of farming into plantation,

that is discussing
mining and energy.

We already had agreed that
there would not be PCHs.

Then, I want to know if you could
ensure that will be no PCHs?

Because it seems that the text that was
homologated it is not what had been discussed.

The text we approved
together is there.

Despite of all discussion and concordance
about hydroelectric plants theme,

paragraph 4 that prevented they
could take place was not published.

All advisers, unanimously, approved the text
that was published in manipulation plan as it is.

In relation to a PCH specifically, there was
two items I recognize that were conflicting.

Work Group will show what is
going to be done in the future.

Work Group is not exempt.

This is Bernardo Caiado.
His family owns RIALMA,

a company that intends to build
dams at Chapada dos Veadeiros,

the same people who bought
Brivaldinho and Marina’s land.

Caiado has nominated himself
as coordinator of Work Group

and got approval of a resolution that,
not only authorizes dam building at APA,

but also encourages them.

At the end of a vitiated
and party council,

Bernardo Caiado achieved to
proceed with his family plans.

Most probably, the dams at
Tocantizinho River will be built.

Also, at Paranã River
and Almas River.

For example, what about the
matter of Bernardo Caiado?

He is not resident because he
is an adviser, is that possible?

I prefer not make comments about it
because it is a very delicate matter

that is already
being handled.

Unfortunately, we didn’t
get the signature

of decree with new council
formation, as foreseen.

Council is a discussion
stage of issue openness

to make us achieve
preferably a consensus,

a negotiation, so that we can solve
problems of Pouso Alto APA.

Current council is totally compromised
with industrial agriculture interests.

(Council Meeting of Pouso Alto APA– 19/08/2016)

Everybody knows the real
reason of changing this council:

environmental sectors
arguing they are minority.

Fundação Cultural Palmares
and quilombo community,

what some of these actors
who are there have to be with APA?

Quilombo Community is not here inside.

By legal force, settlers
and quilombos need to enter.

Sir, could you respect my speech?

Go on.

Suddenly, a rule is changed
without previously consulting us.

Then, we are acting the fool.

It has been two years that sectors

that consider themselves harmed are asking...

To change the council?

Let’s vote, let’s define

We won’t vote because
this council is asymmetric.

Voting here doesn’t count.

It’s what we want to fix.

It’s exactly what we want to fix,
this asymmetry.

And what you say it has to be,
it has to be

because there are fifteen people
in your favour.

That’s what we want to change.
We want diversity.

It has been two years
that sectors claim for their chairs.

APA’s current council has 29 chairs
of which two are not occupied

and only five have some
commitment with environment.

Every representativity must
have a voice within the council.

This is democratic.

It’s about you catching attention
of everyone who lives in Chapada.

APA’s council changing proposal creates
representativity to important sectors

that integrate the territory, as tourism,
settlers of land reform, quilombos and researchers.

Who’s going to speak on
behalf of kalunga but he himself?

Who’s going to speak on behalf
familiar farmers but they themselves?

We must maintain parity,
equal representation:

only public authorities
and civil society.

There’s no other way of
parity to be matched,

for example, productive sector
with environmental sector.

BRAZILIAN SYSTEM OF CONSERVATION UNITS
offers a clear demonstration of what main segments

are desirable to form the council.

There is no guarantee
of formation changing.

Is that optional?

It’s not optional. It is
the law, it’s mandatory.

Compliance with applicable law is essential.
Plural participation of society is mandatory.

I will define an immediate action
of ICMBIO on this actual case.

I’m not satisfied with this
environment limitation.

It stifles a lot the development
of certain areas, certain sectors,

as agribusiness sector, mining
sector, energy production.

What does agribusiness, allied
to politics, think about cerrado?

They think that is a farming expansion
reservation, that it can’t have restrictions.

Which are the
Govern counterparties?

So far, we’ve only heard what we are
going to do to improve our environment

which is the best of Brazil.

It’s all about environment,
environment, environment,

it’s environment, it’s environment,
environment, as if it was a total devastation,

but it’s not what happens.

When I consider farming
areas and pasture areas,

I have here approximately
90.000.000 hectares

of biome cerrado converted.

This converted area has impacts
that compromise carbon stocks.

Cerrado has oligotrophic
soil. But what is that?

Oligotrophic soil is the soil
that needs basic nutrients.

And this is important because
cerrado plants take their food of air.

And what is these
plants’ food? CO2,

which cleans atmosphere and prevents,
continuously, advance of greenhouse effect.

The way of occurrence of
radiation balance, energy balance,

and the changes between surface and
atmosphere were deeply changed.

We are not polluters anymore.

We are just sequestering carbon.

We are helping.
This speech is distorted.

Global warming is not
due to rural producer.

Climate depends on
superficial processes.

If I am changing the surface,
I am changing the climate.

A false dilemma
was set out in Brazil

about farming production and
conservation being enemies, antagonistic.

This is not true if you look
the situation of livestock,

which is the activity that
has occupied more territory,

it lives together with extremely
reduced number of productivity.

Thus, Brazil has great conditions to
improve its performance in livestock

and make more room
to expand other cultures.

All these in a conservation
environment.

Sustainability, maybe, could
be translated as viability,

as something that is, in fact,
possible at the current situation.

It’s another template that the
world demands nowadays,

simply because it’s the
viability of a future.

Tomorrow only exists
if it exists to everyone.

There’s no tomorrow for one,
there is tomorrow for everyone.

We are all in the same boat,

is that what all climatic conventions
around the world talk about all the time.

Sustainability is about this:

it’s taking care of our home,
our land, our water, our air.

The way is not fighting
agribusiness.

The way is strengthening other means
to value culture, value the cerrado,

value people who live here, agroecology,
organic farming, tourism is essential.

In this world everything
is interconnected.

There is an interdependency between

absolutely everything
that is alive.

Water is alive, so,
in a just way,

the spirit of water is a manifestation
of Great Universal Mother

and that we really are disrespecting because
we don’t see it, because we don’t feel it.

Thus, we don’t realize life
that is in the trees,

in the rivers, in the stones.

We don’t realize
that they have life.

We are destroying ourselves
without knowing we are doing it

due to such our disconnection
with greater reality

of life of what we really are,

of what is this game
here in this world.

In all three worlds,

terrestrial, astral and celestial,

I may meditate under splendour
from that sun that enlightens us.

That all golden light may
cherish our understanding

and guide us toward
to sacred abode.

The country with greater potential to exploration
of nature tourism in the world is Brazil.

Wouldn’t be more appropriate that my
first source of income was the forest

since I have 60% of
territory covered by forests?

Instead of destroying the forest
to cultivate agriculture.

Economy of the region is growing faster
than Brazilian GDP with ecotourism

and this ecotourism
depends on preservation.

That region immediately
becomes a world importance

within the context of protected areas,
within the context of areas for ecotourism.

And this increases the sensation
of community well-being.

They feel appreciated,
their self-stem increases

because they feel like
belonging to such special place.

(MEETING OF WATERS)

This is the meeting of
São Miguel with Tocantinzinho.

This is wonderful.
This is paradise. People love it.

People like this place
a lot. Tourists come,

there are people who come
here and don’t want to leave.

Then people go there, have a tour
and come back and end up with food.

Later they come back and bring family,
bring other people, bring friends.

Tourism for us here is a positive
point because it has helped

and is helping a lot of
families to generate income,

also helps to preserve
environment.

And when tourists
come is a joy for us.

My wife cooks for
them, they pay for her,

I make my trip,
they pay for me.

Tourism doesn’t take anything,
they always bring something, isn’t?

When you can associate visitation
to a preserved natural environment,

you visit a quilombo
community,

you enjoy a food prepared
by them, planted by them.

Tourism has the power of
transformation to this local community.

And these people now have the
opportunity to have their own business,

to open their own snack bar,
their own camping, their own guesthouse,

to be a touristic guide.

Then you have a wider range in
income distribution due to tourism

and especially when you
talk about ecotourist.

The tourist who is used to visit
protected areas has a different profile

because they value what
it’s important at the local,

they want to learn about local,
geological, ecological,

and social history, they think it is
important to try local products,

they think it is important to know local
cultural manifestations, local handicraft,

and all this creates a greater
chance of income distribution.

This is a socio-environmental benefit

because they are people
who, sometimes,

had to depend on taking of something
from nature to their survival,

and today they conduct
ecotourism visitors

and they also work
as monitors of

socio-environmental
impacts of visitation.

In other words, ecotourism must be
prioritized as a compatible activity to the region.

The history of the relationship
of mankind with cerrado,

of being so young with being so
old, has not been a nice history.

But we hope we can
take care of cerrado

and understand that cerrado
is complex and it is full of life

and this life deserves to be taken care of
and deserves to continue here

and has space and
condition of living together.

Contrary to the law, Marconi
Perillo, Governor of Goiás,

hadn’t decreed APA council
changing of Pouso Alto.

And worst, ignoring
all studies presented,

he proposed a new limit to enlargement
of Brazilian Park of Chapada dos Veadeiros,

transforming conservation
area in a Swiss cheese.

They even disclosed fake news declaring that
the park would be enlarged in 90.000 hectares.

The proposal does not benefit
population nor environment.

Mais Cerrado Foundation and other
institutions made a lot of pression

and Chico Mendes Institute hasn’t accepted
the proposal from government of Goiás.

And this signature by the
President is taking too long

because Government of the State of
Goiás decided to interfere on this process.

But Sarney, the Government of the
State of Goiás presented a proposal

that came from Vilmar Rocha
which, according to him,

arose from a demand of some farmers
of FAEG and of Leonardo Ribeiro,

who is a specific
farmer who we know.

So, it means that Leonardo is in charge,
is it him who gives the orders to enlarge the park?

No. In fact, who gives the orders,
ultimately, is the President of Republic.

Bombastic news shook Brazil...

3 million Reais in bribe...

Michel Temer was recorded
consenting kickback...

Money deliveries were recorded...

Asking for impeachment of Temer...

I won’t renounce.

Temer was a target to tens of demonstrators
who asked respect to democracy,

to human rights, to
indigenous people

and against relaxation on combat to
deforestation of Brazilian Amazon.

Tomorrow it will be resumed
the judgement of action

which asks for cassation of Political
Candidate Board Dilma-Temer.

Ministers of TSE will decide if there was
abuse of politic and economic power by the Board.

How long are we going to wait?

For the enlargement of Brazilian
Park of Chapada dos Veadeiros.

Now, we are going
to sign a decree

that enlarges in almost 4 times the area
of Brazilian Park of Chapada dos Veadeiros.

Thanks a lot and
cheers to Chapada.

Cheer to cerrado.

Miracle. The enlargement of
park occurred as we wanted,

based on studies instead
of businessmen’s wishes.

But this park that is on
paper has to be implemented

and we are going to monitor because
sertão velho cerrado is smaller each day,

weaker and drier.

Unfortunately, some people were very
dissatisfied with this enlargement of the park

and they are setting
fire on cerrado

and causing even more destruction
at Chapada dos Veadeiros.

These fires that devastate Brazilian Park of
Chapada dos Veadeiros in Goiás are criminal...

The first fire outbreak
occurred on October 10th...

Fire on the forest as retaliation
to the enlargement of the park...

People who set fire
on it are criminal...

Cerrado totally on fire...

Criminal fire...

The flames destroyed 68.000 hectares,
about 28% of the reservation...

I am one of the volunteering firefighters
here in Chapada dos Veadeiros

who is fighting against fire in all
directions for more than 10 days.

The issue of being criminal is
something delicate to talk on this stage.

But there are evidences indicating
that this fire was induced.

It was caused in a period of the
day in which weather was hot,

in favour of the wind,
with very strong winds.

Thus, there is a tendency indicating that
fire was induced to cause fire in major scale.

That’s what we
are evaluating.

This operation is the greatest operation of
firefighting that Brazil has ever had in its history.

We are almost 200 people in the field,
some in logistic, others preparing food,

others acting like firefighters
even extinguishing the fires.

Thus, this situation brought a huge
union for this group, which gets stronger.