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Deforestation also destroys the Guarani

Valdelice Veron was in France from July 20^th to July 26^th, 2015 to meet with authorities, François Hollande, Prince Albert of Monaco, and personalities such as Nicolas Hulot, French media, but also NGOs such as Envol Vert with Léa Durant, administrator, and its founder Boris Patentreger. She came to warn about her people’s dramatic situation. The Guarani-Kaiowá, persecuted by farmers who destroy their land for sugar cane monoculture, used to make biofuels and sugar but also soy, sometimes exported in France.

Valdelice Veron, whose father, chief of the Guarani, was murdered like nearly 300 other Indians in the last decade, spoke during the Summit of Conscience on July 21^st, 2015:

“I am fighting against genocide and ethnocide in Brazil since the colonizers arrived in the 16^th century. I need help! My people is crying for help! I am nothing but the voice of a people who refuses to die in silence! Our one desire is to live in peace on the land where we were born, and where our ancestors were buried.”

“I am a guardian of the forest whose sole ambition is to ensure the “Green Testament” for my children, synonymous to nature conservation. My people’s respectful approach to the land, the fauna and flora is a simple expression of our Kaiowá way of life. Our territories are being destroyed by greedy men whose only goal is to get richer by supplying the global market with soy, meat… For us, the scourge here is biofuel: ethanol is made from the blood in our veins, and floods the Kaiowá land”.

The Guarani-Kaiowá ask Dilma Rousseff’s government to abide by the law. Brazil’s Constitution states since 1988 that indigenous peoples have “cultural and territorial rights” based on their ancestral heritage. The text ordered demarcation of indigenous territories within five years. The Guarani-Kaiowá are still waiting on this delimitation. During the meeting with various NGOs, including Planète Amazone which made their trip, its logistical support and its organization possible, the two representatives of the Guarani went even further and asked for help in speaking about this genocide linked to companies we already know too well. They recalled that if we do not speak about their message enough, they could die upon their return with a killer waiting for them.

Therefore, Envol Vert calls for all companies to respect their commitments, such as BUNGE, which committed to implementing its Zero deforestation policy on all its raw materials, and not simply palm oil.

Envol Vert would also like to call loud and clear for Louis Dreyfus Commodities, at the head of a soccer club such as l’Olympique de Marseille on one hand, and involved in the Guarani-Kaiowá genocide through its agricultural and trading activities on the other hand, to immediately commit to implementing a Zero Deforestation policy on all of its raw materials.

Envol Vert recalls that even though some raw materials such as palm oil are targeted by consumers and companies, many others, like sugar cane and soy in this instance, are also responsible for deforestation. We should therefore measure and reduce our forest footprint on all our products in order to continue enjoying, like the Guarani-Kaiowá, the many favors it has done us.

© Envol Vert - translated by Camille Guibal / original article