Amazon Rainforest Activism

With climate change findings world powers have attempted to play an active role in slowing down its process, attempting to preserve and protect natural resources. The Amazonian Rainforest is one of many areas where its preservation is crucial for human wellbeing. According to Imme Scholz, both civil society organizations and non-governmental organizations play a significant role in preserving the Amazon Rainforest in Brazil (681). Scholz claims that there are three ways civil society organizations can aid in the preservation of the rainforest; the first being, that CSOs are important partners to create awareness of policies that can be implemented to end deforestation; second, they are well suited to create partnerships with both local and international environmental actors; and third, partnerships strengthen CSOs capacities to implement policies for rainforest preservation (682). To further understand Scholz’s claims an analysis of Chico Mendes’s activism in Brazil is beneficial. …show more content…
Starting out as a union leader, Mendes would later be known as an environmentalist. Imme Scholz’s first way of standing against deforestation is creating awareness of policies that could be implemented to end deforestation. In the 1970s and 1980s the Brazilian government pushed for the growth of cattle ranches, now that at the time this approach seemed the most profitable (Encyclopedia of World Biography 2017). Under the assumption that the rubber tapping unions are CSOs; Chico Mendes helped organize movements with the attempt to stop rainforest deforestation. Through the protection of the rubber tapping industry, the rainforest is protected while still being profitable; Mendes achieved Scholz’s first way of fighting