The Fate of the Forest

Developers, Destroyers, and Defenders of the Amazon, Updated Edition

Susanna B. Hecht, Alexander Cockburn

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Year: 2011
• eBook ISBN:
  9780226322735
• Print ISBN:
  9780226322728
• Subtopic: Latin American & Caribbean History

The Amazon rain forest covers more than five million square kilometers, amid the territories of nine different nations. It represents over half of the planet's remaining rain forest. Is it truly in peril? What steps are necessary to save it? To understand the future of Amazonia, one must know how its history was forged: in the eras of large pre-Columbian populations, in the gold rush of conquistadors, in centuries of slavery, in the schemes of Brazil's military dictators in the 1960s and 1970s, and in new globalized economies where Brazilian soy and beef now dominate, while the market in carbon credits raises the value of standing forest.

Susanna Hecht and Alexander Cockburn show in compelling detail the panorama of destruction as it unfolded, and also reveal the extraordinary turnaround that is now taking place, thanks to both the social movements, and the emergence of new environmental markets. Exploring the role of human hands in destroying—and saving—this vast forested region, The Fate of the Forest pivots on the murder of Chico Mendes, the legendary labor and environmental organizer assassinated after successful confrontations with big ranchers. A multifaceted portrait of Eden under siege, complete with a new preface and afterword by the authors, this book demonstrates that those who would hold a mirror up to nature must first learn the lessons offered by some of their own people.

Index

Abuna river 76, 92

Académie des Sciences 8, 21, 71

Açailândia 56

Acosta, J. de 4

Acre

—extent of deforestation 280

—Treaty of Ayacucho 80–81

—Bolivian syndicate 82–4

—insurrection 84–6, 284–5

—Republic of Poets 85

—land-grabbing 168–71, 188, 251–2, 290

—resistance of rubber tappers 190–94, 206–16, 261–5

—FETACRE 207

—river 24, 81, 83

Acuña, F. C. 273

Aeschylus 38, 50

aforamentos 168–205

Aftosa, foot and mouth disease 108

Agassiz, Mme and prof. 75, 276

Agent Orange 49

agrarian reform 132–3, 134–5, 195–6, 293

—see also INCRA

agriculture

—indigenous 34, 43–8

—attraction of game 46–7

—cultivation of fruit trees 47

—agro-forestry 58–9, 108

—concerns of elites 64–5, 182–3

—colonists 50, 124–8, 170–74, 203–6, 267, 295

agro-ecological zoning 138, 234–7

Akeley, Carl 13

Akers, Charles 90

Alcorn, Janice 35

Alencar, José de 12–13

Allegretti, Marie 207, 209, 213

Alliance for Progress 115

allopatric speciation 29

Altamira 242, 296–7, 306

Alves brothers, Darly & Alvorino 211–13, 308

Darly’s son Darcy 308

alvarás 160

Amapá 93, 139, 214, 296–7

A...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Copyright
• Title Page
• Praise for The Fate of the Forest
• Epigraph
• Contents
• List of maps
• Preface to the 2010 Edition
• Acknowledgements
• One: The Forests of Their Desires
• Two: The Realm of Nature
• Three: The Heritage of Fire
• Four: The Amazon Prospectus
• Five: Magnates in the Amazon
• Six: The Generals’ Blueprint
• Seven: The Furies Unleashed
• Eight: The Defenders of the Amazon
• Nine: The Ecology of Justice
• Appendix A: Interview with Ailton Krenak
• Appendix B: Interview with Darrell Posey
• Appendix C: Interview with Osmarino Amâncio Rodrigues
• Appendix D: Interview with Father Michael Feeney
• Appendix E: Forest Peoples’ Manifesto
• Appendix F: Seven Beliefs, True and False, about the Amazon
• Appendix G: A note on parks, the origins of Yosemite and the expulsions of Native Americans
• Glossary of Plant Names
• Glossary of Portuguese Terms
• Notes and References
• Bibliography
• Afterword, 2010
• Index