Chico Mendes Ten Years Later
10/16/97
*******************************
RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Headline: Chico Mendes Ten Years Later
Source: Amanaka's Amazon Network
Date: 10/16/97
********************* Call for Participation ******************
Amazon Week VIII
Chico Mendes Ten Years Later
November/December, 1998
1998 marks ten years since Chico Mendes, a rubber tapper, union
leader, and environmentalist was assassinated by landowners in
Acre, Western Amazon. To commemorate the anniversary, Amazon
Week VIII will be held in New York City in November/December
1998. We hope to use the Week to seriously discuss and evaluate
the strategies that have shaped the fight to save the Rainforest
over the past ten years.
Since 1988, many victories have been gained. But we still face
many of the same challenges: invasions of indigenous land
continues; the burning of the Amazon has increased over the past
two years by 28%; and violence and impunity continue to be a
major concern. Yet international attention has turned
elsewhere.
We see Amazon Week as a place for those already involved -
forest leaders, activists, educators, Rainforest product
marketers, and policy makers - to come together to carefully
evaluate our strategies. We hope to learn from this process,
and come out of it with a better sense of "where to go from
here", how we can make international support more effective.
Amazon Week will also be an important point to stop, take stock,
and issue a renewed call for the Amazon.
Amazon Week VIII (to be developed under the umbrella theme
"Chico Mendes: Ten Years Later") will be coordinated by
Amanaka'a Amazon Network, in conjunction with the Rainforest
Foundation, the Amazon Coalition, and several other
organizations across the United States. Brazilian partner
organizations will be actively involved, and the Week is planned
as part of a series of events organized by the National Council
of Rubber Tappers-CNS, including a concert in Rio and a
conference and Expo in Xapuri.
Please join us! We welcome your comments, suggestions, and
participation. We see the coming year as critical to the future
of the Amazon, and hope that a broad range of people will join
us. The kind of critical evaluation we hope to do during the
week can only be done if you participate.
Contact:
Christine Halvorson
Amanaka'a Amazon Network
60 East 13th Street, 5th Floor
New York, NY 10003
Tel: (212) 253 9502
Fax: (212) 253 9507
christine@amanakaa.org