On Earth Day, a Homage to a Beloved Forest Defender

April 22, 2024 12:22PM EDT
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Dispatches

Osvalinda Pereira Spent Many Years Defending the Amazon

Maria Laura Canineu
Deputy Director, Environment and Human Rights
@mlcanineu



Osvalinda Marcelino Alves Pereira. © Edelstam Foundation
This Earth Day is an opportunity to celebrate the work of the courageous people who put themselves at risk fighting for a world in which people and the planet can thrive.

I personally would like to honor Osvalinda Marcelino Alves Pereira. Sadly, she passed away from a long-standing illness just over a week ago. I first met her in 2018: She was a small-scale farmer from Trairão, a village in the state of Pará, in the heart of Brazil’s Amazon.

When I met Osvalinda, she lived on a settlement set up by Brazil’s federal land reform agency. She had been forced to flee her home within her community because of death threats that began in 2011, after Pereira, who had already founded a women's association, also took on illegal loggers.

While still living with her community, Pereira had obtained support from an environmental nongovernmental organization to develop sustainable organic agricultural practices and reforest the area. A group of illegal loggers exploring the area told Pereira to stop. When she did not, they began threatening her, but she persisted and repeatedly reported the issue to the authorities and the police. The authorities did nothing to protect Pereira and her family, which lead to her move in 2018.

More:
https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/04/22/earth-day-homage-beloved-forest-defender









Osvalinda Pereira
Rest in Peace