News

Forest Destroyed, a Family Devastated

Destruction of Argentina's Chaco forest has featured in recent issues of SHARE. (SAMS Magazine) Andrew Leake now tells how global economic forces affect real people:

Six-year-old Vanesa had been born into a humble Wichi family in the small village of Chofwayuk in the dry tropical forests of northern Argentina. Her early years were happy ones spent playing with her siblings. Most of all, she loved helping her mother look after her baby brother Jeremías.

Family life changed abruptly the day the bulldozers arrived. As the trees crashed down, Vanesa's world was literally wiped out. The beautiful forest was replaced by a barren ocean of soy beans, patrolled by giant agricultural machines and bombarded from the air by crop dusters.

Just when things could seemingly get no worse, an irritation in one of Vanesa's eyes was diagnosed as cancer. Her father, Eduardo, took her to the city where doctors had to remove the eye. She put on a brave face, and recouped some of her beauty with the aid of a glass eye. Eduardo believes the disease was caused by the pesticides used by farmers on their crops.

Confronting the Giants

The loss of the forest made family life more and more difficult. Vanesa's parents could no longer find the plants, fruits, honey and animals that provided them with much of their diet. When bulldozers arrived to knock down one of the last patches of forest near her community, Eduardo decided enough was enough. He sought help from local authorities, but when this drew a blank he decided to take direct action. With the rest of his community he stood in front of the advancing bulldozers -- which sure enough generated a response, but not one they desired.

Riot police came to the village, beat up the peaceful protestors and arrested all the men. Terrified by what she witnessed, Vanesa grabbed her baby brother and ran off into the forest. In tears, she wandered aimlessly, dragging Jeremías as she was not strong enough to carry him. She became disorientated and was lost for several hours. Eduardo, back home after his ordeal with the police, found the children in the late evening. They were bruised and cut by thorns but otherwise in good shape.

The family recounted the day's events, trying to make sense of the injustice they had suffered. At that same moment, in a lawyer's office a few miles away, a court injunction was being signed that would make it a legal offence for Eduardo and some other community members to go within 50 metres of the plot being deforested. In practical terms, this now means Eduardo has to break the law in order to travel to and from his village.

Though far removed from our own reality, the misfortunes of families such as Vanesa's are often linked to our own lives. International demand for cheaper crops finds a willing partner in the insatiable greed of agribusinesses that supply products regardless of environmental and social costs. Left unchecked and fuelled by our own consumer demands, these economic forces play havoc with the wellbeing of family life halfway round the globe.

The Anglican Church, with support from SAMS, is actively involved in supporting indigenous communities in Argentina in issues of land rights and preservation of the forest. This work is conducted by the programme of social justice, ASOCIANA, to which Andrew devotes part of his ministry.

This article appeared in the International Anglican Family Newsletter, Easter 2008, and is reproduced here with permission.

Saturday, July 28, 2007

New Public Enquiry?
As a result of the opposition manifested at the public enquiry over a proposal to deforest 30,000 hectares of Chaco forest (see below), we have learnt (informally, and yet to be confirmed officially) that the government may now carry out a second public meeting.

Both ASOCIANA and the government agency for indigenous issues (IPPIS) presented legal measures questioning the project and the manner in which the public enquiry was carried out. ASOCIANA questioned the scientific validity of the company’s environmental impact assessment. The government agency was basically unhappy with the fact that they were only informed of the event two days before the event, and therefore unable to attend.

Audience at the initipublic hearing in Embarcación 02 07 07

This news is both good and bad. Good in the sense that our questioning was strong enough to stop an outright authorisation of the project. Bad in that the government and the land owners still thinking they can somehow get the project approved. The fact if the matter is that had ASOCIANA not been involved, it is quite likely that no formal questioning of he project would have been made, which would have made it easier for it to have been approved. What is interesting is that this is occurring just as a big sugar and paper factory in the neighbouring province of Jujuy have backtracked on a proposal to deforest a large area of tropical cloud forest after meeting a lot of resistance from non-government organisations. On a slightly different plane, another issue making headlines is the opposition being mounted by a small town high in the mountains against a proposed uranium mine.

Sugar and Paper Mill in Ledesma (Jujuy) - which recently backed down from a proposal to deforest tropical jungles in the Andean foothills

The above is indicative of a gradual growth of environmental awareness among certain sectors of public opinion, and it is to be welcomed. Small as it may be, one feels we are no longer alone. There are others out there with whom we can link our efforts, and this is very positive.

The Marathon July 5th 2007

The Marathon is organised by Alec Deane for the Wichi in Misión Chaqueña and is now an annual event which has sparked the imagination of the Wichi and many are willing to run the 15 miles between the villages of Padre Lozano and Misión Chaqueña, otherwise known as Algarrobal, the place where the carob trees grow. Last year the aim of the marathon was to draw attention to the threat of AIDS (which has not yet caused havoc amongst the people), but this year the Wichi are being encouraged to take care of their eyes. Alec Deane has invited an ophthalmologist friend from Salta to undertake eye examinations in the village, which have shown that many people require cataract operations, which cost more money than they can afford.

Siwok Crafts here in the UK was able to send £1000 recently to enable some operations to take place, particularly that of Pastor Rufino Gutierrez who was suffering from cataracts and glaucoma and threatened blindness.

If you would like to make a donation towards prizes for the Marathon then please email us and we will give you the correct bank account to pay into.