Demarcation Dairies
2-3 September 2001
Environmental movement is really about how people live with nature,
but it is never an easy question to answer. A small but dramatic
incident this morning showed just how difficult it is to judge
how people from different cultures and living in different environments
should live with nature.
Our ship stopped at the riverbank some miles away from Carauari,
a small town along Rio Jurua.
This morning we saw a huge "jacare" (the Amazon name
for alligator) moving slowly in the river, just about 20 meters
from our ship. There were also several ships and boats stopping
in the area, and a middle-aged man from one of the ships took
out a rifle, ignoring our shouting, and shot the alligator in
the head. The alligator sank immediately.
We were all upset by the incident and some of us thought that
this was a classic case of "predator hatred," the man
was stupid and irrational. "But how could you judge the people
living here with your own standard? How could you say they are
stupid and irrational when your kids have to live with these dangerous
animals along the river?"
Some of us did not agree and asked. In fact, shooting the alligator
is just too rational, when we see dangers, the first rational
thought is to get rid of them. We have been trained to deal with
natural dangers from the perspective of human survival.
It seems to me if there is anything wrong with the man, it is
not his stupidity or irrationality, but we cannot live with nature
like that and there are other ways to coexist with predators like
the alligator. How could we kill all dangerous and undesirable
animals? The thought itself is horrible, and it will create disastrous
results.
In Costa Rica, villagers kill alligators because they are a real
threat to the local community, especially the kids. But local
environmentalists have succeeded in persuading the villagers not
to kill alligators, but to report to a special team of people
who are responsible for catching the alligators and moving them
to places far away from human settlement. Of course it takes more
of an effort than shooting the alligator with a rifle, but I believe
this is a better way to deal with many dangers in nature.
In fact the people living in the Amazon are generally people
who respect nature.
We often see people riding in canoes moving alongside the dolphins.
The dolphins are of course much more harmless than the jacares.
Local people, however, are forced to catch dolphins if they can
not get enough fish for food.
In some areas of the Amazon, because of the destruction of forest
and the establishment of mining and agricultural settlements,
rivers have heavy sediment, are polluted and the fish are gone.
When that happens, local people are forced to look for means of
survival elsewhere, and often this means further destruction of
nature.
But we should not blame the miners and farmers, because they
are victims of a development model which takes away their land
and forces them to become displaced. Rather than blaming the people,
whether they are the man who shoots the alligator, villagers who
catch dolphins or miners and farmers who destroy the river and
forest, it is better to work for change that make sure these things
don't happen.
To a large extent, this is what we are helping to achieve too.
Rather than waiting for the loggers to start their predatory invasion
of the Deni land, we are here to help the Deni prevent this from
happening by helping to demarcating their land.
I sincerely hope that not only will this stop the WTK and other
logging companies from destroying the forest, but the Deni will
also be able to live in harmony with the forest and river, as
they have been doing up to now.
Kontau
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