Two barges transporting over 200 logs of illegal wood were impounded by IBAMA (Brazilian Environmental Agency) after a three days blockade by 40 small river boats in the Jaraucu river.
These dairies are from activists who are part of a Greenpeace
support team working with forest dwelling people in Pará state as
they strive to create the Verde Para Sempre (Forever Green)
extractive reserve. Half the size of Belgium, the reserve would
help end illegal logging, preserving the forest and the way of life
of those who live in harmony with it.
24 September 2002
A total outsider's perspective
Five days down the Rio Negro and Amazonas on the only blue and
orange riverboat out of Manaus. The Veloz, strung full of hammocks,
high tech equipment and towing the recently released and renamed
Anaconda (a nine meter inflatable jet boat formerly the Ocean
Raven).
As most of you know a lot of hard work goes into getting to this
stage as we set off down river and leave the relative security of
Manaus. There is an obvious acceptance by some of the more seasoned
veterans aboard that from here on you have a main objective, but
essentially it's adapt and survive. As far as a legal brief goes -
well what's the point! When the opposition are essentially the law
and blatantly disregarding it. No subtle spin doctors or public
relations work here, just a kick in the teeth and a bullet if you
push it. Sounds a little over dramatic maybe? Exactly what I would
have thought three weeks ago, but hey you live and learn.
On the way down river there was a little work for the Anaconada,
a sandbank stranding with the Veloz, occasional use as a stern
thruster and regular pickups and deliveries en route.
This little nine metre boat has been trapped under a mountain of
Brazilian paperwork for the past three years and is now free and as
the only jet boat (to our knowledge) in the Amazon it represents
something special for the campaign. A bit of an edge in our favor
in a place where the words Greenpeace and international press means
nothing. It's an important tool and equally as important as a
little psychological booster. Never to be under estimated.
Five days down river we rendezvous with 50 local boats of
varying shapes and sizes, each one packed with local farmers,
fishermen, forest dwellers and their families. We will create a
blockade to stop illegal shipments of timber to the town of Porto
de Moz, which is timberville, the mayor being Mr. Lumber
himself.
The main aim of blocking the river will be achieved by a steel
cable with a line of small wooden boats moored along the cable and
an instant community springs to life. There is the school boat, the
party boat, the kitchen boat, you name it - a small community
strung out across the river.
As with most Greenpeace expeditions up or down river, medical
assistance is on offer to the locals and our onboard doctor was not
short of work. The first evening saw a 30 mile dash with the
Anaconda to Porto de Moz with a four month pregnant haemorrhaging
patient, first time I've seen a drip administered at 28 knots in
the dark, very impressive, hats off to all those doctors and medics
out there.
The Veloz, crewed by the most "up for it group" of locals, soon
became part of the action team, each one a prime candidate for
Greenpeace ships but me thinks they're far too sensible for
that.
The second day we restrung the cable, there was much talking
between local organisers and Greenpeace and a log barge stacked to
the rafters full of illegal timber. The barge was coaxed to the
river bank by the local boats and sat there for the best part of
seven hours being visited by local group leaders and
Greenpeace.
Picture this... little river boats only 10 metres long packed
full of family members, kids, parents, grandparents etc. and at
0100 hrs the log barge decides to send it's 4000 tonnes at two to
three knots towards the blockade.
The Anaconda, various loose local boats and the Veloz helped pin
the barge to the shore just metres before the blockade. This whole
situation at night had a very large potential to become very ugly,
frustrated locals took their chance to hit back at the local mafia
and fighting broke out. Some key people, and who knows how much
good luck, stopped people from being killed that night.
It's a very real situation out here and the word control is one
that you don't use lightly because it is easily taken from you by
the environment itself and by the corrupt system that's trying to
destroy the environment...no other words for it. I was scared,
scared for myself and for the little people at both ends of this
big argument.
The next day we saw another logging barge and the arrival of the
federal police who are so ridiculously under-funded as to make them
ineffective. The agents were taken out to the barge prior to its
arrival at the blockade, again illegal timber, the confirmed owner
is the local mayor of Porto de Moz. It was stopped and helped
alongside the first log barge.
Later that day a planned trip into Port de Moz with the blockade
and two shipments was cancelled after an initial drop off of press
lead to violent assaults by the people of the logging town and one
activists needed to buy himself out of a very bad kicking, if not
worse (sorry he did not get a receipt), and the advice of the local
police, all six of them said people could die if we entered the
town.
So it was good old plan B. Get out with no serious injury or
loss of life, having achieved the objective. This in itself was
another logistical challenge.
Manaus and Porto de Moz are two different worlds. I think the
folks in the Manaus office have some commitment, but at the
blockade were people who are living in the lion's mouth and
prodding him with a stick because that's all they have. The
consequences? Well, some of them may not see the end of the end.
That's a fact and some high profile organisers will have to leave
the home they are fighting for.
Nothing much changes in the fight between the haves and have
nots in this world, but this has been my most real experience of
this age old problem.
Again over dramatic? Not from what I have seen. My most scary
experience, but more for the people we leave behind.
Big hugs to all from a place where bullet resistant vests are
life jackets.
RP
PS. I still know nothing!
RP is an outboard engine mechanic in the Amazon to get the
Anaconda into shape after spending the last year in a customs
wharehouse.
23 September 2002,Santarem
We are back in Santarém, in relative safety. But the last couple
of days have seen our worst-case scenario come true. What
happened?
On the second day of the blockade a barge finally came down the
river, fully loaded with huge hardwood logs. So far only a few
houseboats full of workers have had to stop at the blockade, but
this was the real thing.
The barge pushed on and the captain was warned of the blockade a
long way off, indeed he must have known anyway. But he pushed on
and entered the 500 metre safety zone without stopping the engines.
The threatening steel monster came dangerously close and only at
the very last moment we managed to push it into the river bank to
stop it from running over the houseboats. It turned out that the
captain and owner of the barge was the brother of the Mayor of
Porto de Moz and one of the largest loggers here. After some
negotiating between the leaders of the blockade and the captain, he
agreed to stay here until the end of the blockade. However, as it
turned out, that was not his real intention.
At about 2 am the engines of the tugboat suddenly roared into
action and the barge started to move towards the chain of small
wooden boats tied onto a steel cable across the river. All alarms
roared and everybody was wide-awake. I had been dozing in my
hammock on the upper deck of the Veloz when things went wild.
From the railing, I could see the barge in the gleaming white
light of the Veloz's spotlight making for the line of little boats.
Dave, our jet-boat driver, was already there pushing the 400 horse
power inflatable Anaconda against the bow of the barge trying to
stop the advance.
Engines roared, shouts and screams cut through the night, lights
jumped through the darkness like lasers, a multitude of smaller
boats headed for the barge or circled around chaotically. Some of
the locals had already climbed on the barge.
Dave managed to slow down the barge but was unable to stop it.
The barge was approaching the houseboats from were we could hear
shouts of panic as men, women and children tried to get their boats
loose from the cable. The Veloz came to Dave's aid and rammed the
barge from the side, pushing her into the bank again gaining some
more time.
This was a welcome surprise to us, as the Veloz is a rented ship
and the crew under no obligation to endanger either the ship or
themselves. But they are on the side of the communities and their
struggle and did not hesitate to help.
I used this moment to jump down from the deck onto the barge and
from there we hurried to the tugboat. The locals were furious as
they saw the captain heading his 4000 tonne barge right into their
families. They stormed the captain's cabin and fights between the
captain and his crew and the community people broke out in the
bridge. We few Greenpeace activists on board tried in vain to calm
the situation.
While the steering wheel of the tugboat was fiercely pulled and
pushed this way and that, the barge finally cut through the cable.
But all the efforts managed to buy enough time for the five small
wooden boats with more than 80 people on board in the path of the
barge to flee to safety. With the tugboat now totally out of
control, but the engine in neutral, Dave managed to stop the
advance and the barge was finally secured on the river bank.
In the meantime, a second confrontation took place out on the
river. When the cable broke all the small boats broke loose from
their line. The logger's lead boat used the confusion to get
through the blockade. It was followed by some of the larger
community boats and from the bridge of the tugboat I could watch
them trying to outmaneuver each other.
The rest of the night was spent in tight apprehension until
finally the federal police arrived and secured the barge and the
captain. Soon after, the Mayor of Porto the Moz and brother of the
arrested captain arrived, furious and uncompromising. His family is
one of the major players in local logging owning the two main saw
mills in the town.
Officials from IBAMA, the Brazilian Environment Agency, were
flown in with the Greenpeace plane from Santarém and confirmed that
all timber on board the barge was illegal and seized it. Meanwhile
a second barge came down the river, it was stopped by the police
and the timber also seized by IBAMA.
By mid-day it looked like the action was a complete success: two
barges full of illegal timber have been apprehended and seized by
the combined efforts of local communities, Greenpeace and the
federal police. And they both belonged to the family of the
Mayor.
All of the more than 40 boats of the local people were moored
around the barges and the big Veloz overlooked the scene. We
planned to escort the two confiscated barges into Porto de Moz with
the full convoy of boats, once the IBAMA officials had ended their
work of measuring the timber on board. But once again the loggers
played their own unfair game.
Even before the authorities had given their OK, the two captains
of the barges started their engines again and headed down the
river. The small police crew had to accept the fait-acompli and so
the whole flotilla of boats started too and we all accompanied the
barges towards Porto de Moz.
Some of the journalists went ahead in a Greenpeace speedboat to
catch a plane from Porto de Moz back to Belem and Sao Paulo. But
when they got to the town, the mayor had incited people into a mob
and they violently attacked the journalists and Greenpeace
activist. Only with police protection could they all leave the
airport safely, but even the police van was attacked, the doors
forced open, videotapes destroyed. The mayor also took part in the
violence. It was a close call, but eventually the journalists and
activists managed to escape to the river and headed back towards
our convoy.
They radioed ahead to warn us of the tense situation in town and
it was immediately decided to stop our convoy and not go ahead with
the barges. The barges of course continued, but we all stopped and
discussed our uncomfortable situation. Police arrived from Porto de
Moz shortly after the shaken journalists and activists, and warned
us, that if we continued into town, they could not guarantee our
safety and we could be killed.
In the end the boats from the various communities in the area
sailed home one by one. The journalists and the community leaders,
who feared for their lives, stayed on board the Veloz and we all
left via an alternative route. Later, we heard that one of the
community boats was seized by the mob and burned to ashes, one of
the men heavily beaten.
Now we are in Santarém from where the journalists can take their
flights. The news about the events have gone out to the whole
country, and Greenpeace is currently holding meetings with federal
police and IBAMA to discuss the situation. All of us here on board
have very mixed feelings as we leave the locals behind, some at
their own homes, some in secret places to guarantee their
safety.
This is a lawless country, it seems, and the authorities are
unable to control the logging mafia. For the time being, we have
all escaped safely and there were "only" three injuries. But it is
clear that this campaign is a different ball game than any of the
other Greenpeace work that I have participated in so far.
We have another two days of sailing up the Amazonas back to
Manaus and these should be relaxing days again. But the images of
the violent events of the past days are in all our minds and have
changed the way we look at things here.
Tommy
Santarém, 23 September 2002
We are back in Santarém, in relative safety. But the last couple
of days have seen our worst-case scenario come true. What had
happened?
On the second day of the blockade a barge finally came down the
river, fully loaded with huge hardwood trunks. So far only a few
houseboats full of workers have had to stop at the blockade, but
now this was the real thing. The barge was pushed on and the
captain was warned of the blockade a long way off, indeed he must
have known anyway. But he pushed on and had already entered the 500
m safety zone without stopping the engines. The threatening steel
monster came dangerously close and only at the very last moment we
managed to push it into the margin of the river to stop it from
actually running over the houseboats.
It turned out that the captain and owner was the brother of the
Mayor of Porto de Moz and one of the largest loggers here. After
some negotiating between the leaders of the blockade and the
captain, he agreed to stay here until the end of the blockade.
However, it turned out, this was not his real intention.
At about 2 a.m. the engines of the tugboat suddenly roared into
gear and the barge started to move towards the string of boats tied
onto the steel cable across the river. All alarms roared and
everybody was wide-awake. I had been dozing in my hammock on the
upper deck of the Veloz when things went wild. From the railing, I
could see the barge in the white gleaming light of the Veloz's
spotlight making for the little boats.
Dave, our jet-boat driver, was already there pushing the 400 hp
Anaconda against the bow of the barge trying to stop her advance.
Engines roared, shouts and screams cut through the night, lights
jumped through the darkness like laser swords, a multitude of out
boarders and smaller boats headed for the barge or circled
chaotically around. Some of the locals had already climbed on the
barge. David had managed to slow down the barge but was unable to
actually stop her. And she was getting to the houseboats from were
we could hear shouts of panic as men, women and children tried to
get their boats loose from the cable.
The Veloz came to David's aid and rammed the barge from the
side, pushing her into the margin again, further gaining some time.
This was a welcome surprise to us, as the Veloz is a rented ship
and the crew under no obligation to endanger either the ship or
themselves. But they had all long sided with the communities and
their struggle and did not hesitate to help. I used this moment to
jump down from the deck onto the barge and from there we hurried to
the tugboat. The locals were furious as they saw the captain
heading his 4,000 tons barge right into their families. They
stormed the captain's cabin and fights between the captain and his
crew and the community people broke out in the bridge. We few
Greenpeace activists on board tried in vain to calm the
situation.
Whilst the steering wheel of the tugboat was fiercely pulled and
pushed this way and that the barge had finally cut through the
cable, but all the efforts had managed to buy enough time for the
five boats in direct line of the barge (with more than 80 people on
board) to flee into safety. With the tugboat now totally out of
control, but the engine in neutral, Dave managed to stop the
descent and the barge was finally secured on the margin.
In the meantime a second "sea battle" took place out on the
river itself. When the cable burst all boats obviously came free
and the logger's head boat used the confusion to get through the
blockade. She was followed by some of the stronger blockader's
boats and from the bridge of the tugboat I could watch them trying
to outmaneuver each other.
The rest of the night was spent in tight apprehension until
finally the federal police arrived and secured the barge and the
captain. Soon after, the Mayor of Porto the Moz and brother of the
arrested captain came too, furious and uncompromising. His family
is one of the major loggers and own the two main saw mills in the
town. Officials from IBAMA, the Brazilian Environment Agency, were
flown in with the Greenpeace plane from Santarém and confirmed that
all timber on board the barge was illegal and seized it. Meanwhile
a second barge came down the river, was stopped by the police and
the timber also seized by IBAMA.
By mid-day it looked like the action was a full success: two
barges full of illegal timber had been apprehended and seized by
the combined efforts of local communities and Greenpeace. And they
both belonged to the family of the Mayor. All of the more than 40
boats of the locals were moored around the barges and the big Veloz
overlooked the scene. It was planned to escort the two confiscated
barges into Porto the Moz with the full convoy of boats, once the
IBAMA officials had ended their work of measuring the timber on
board. But once again the loggers played their own unfair game.
Even before the authorities had given their OK, the two captains
of the barges started their engines again and headed down the
river. The small police crew had to accept the fait-acompli and so
the whole flotilla of boats started too and we all accompanied the
barges towards Porto the Moz.
Some of the journalists went ahead in a Greenpeace speedboat to
catch a plane from Porto the Moz back to Belem and Sao Paulo. But
when they got to the town, the Mayor had so incited the population
there that a mob had formed and violently attacked the journalist
and Greenpeace activist. Only with police protection could they all
leave the airport safely, but even the police van was attacked, the
doors forced open, videotapes destroyed. The Mayor himself took
part in the violence.
It was a close call, but eventually journalist and activists
managed to escape to the river and headed back towards the convoy.
They radioed ahead to warn us of the tense situation in town and it
was immediately decided to stop our convoy and not go in with the
barges. The log barges of course continued, but we all stopped and
discussed our uncomfortable situation. Police arrived from Porto de
Moz shortly after the shaken journalists and activists, and warned
us, that if we would continue into town, they could not guarantee
our safety and we could be killed.
In the end the boats from the various communities in the area
sailed home one by one. The journalists and the community leaders,
who had to fear for their lives, stayed on board the Veloz and we
all left via an alternative route. Later, we heard that one of the
community boats was seized by the mob and burned to ashes, one of
the men heavily beaten up.
Now we are in Santarém again from where the journalist can take
their flights. The news about the events have gone out to the whole
country, and Greenpeace is currently holding meetings with Federal
Police and IBAMA to discuss the situation. All of us here on board
have very mixed feelings as we leave the locals behind, some at
their own huts, some in secret places to guarantee their safety.
This is a lawless country, it seems, and the authorities unable to
control the logging mafia. For the time being, we have all escaped
safely and all in all there were "only" three injuries. But it is
clear that this Greenpeace campaign is a different ball game than
any of the other Greenpeace work that I have participated in so
far.
We have another two days of sailing up the Amazonas back to
Manaus and these should be relaxing days again. But the images of
the violent events of the past days are in all our minds and have
changed the way we look at things here.
-Tommy
Porto de Moz, 18 September 2002
During the past two days we picked up a number of
community-leaders and people from various little towns and
villages, who will form the essential part of the planned action.
The boat is anchored in the middle of the bright green Rio Jaraucu,
a tributary of the Xingu, and is now really full, with no quiet
corner left. Even the hammocks are so crowded that is seems like
being on a commercial passenger boat, third class. The campaigners
arrived as well, and so did the press team. This means that the
solar-powered office on board is also full, as everybody needs to
use the computers or the communications equipment.
-Tommy
Prainha, Pará, Brasilien, 16 September 2002
Today it was rather windy and the boat had to battle against the
waves as we slowly get closer to the sea. We stayed very close to
the southern shore most of the time, in order to avoid the worst.
But eventually we had to cross over to the north side, a crossing
which would take as much as an hour and is potentially dangerous if
we went parallel to the waves… the boat rolled heavily as the waves
hit us from the side. Just before darkness fell - and it is
certainly not advisable for these kind of boats to drive at night
when there are waves - we reached the little port of Prainha, not
much more than a cluster of houses, but some dating from the 18th
century.
-Tommy
Santarém, Rio Tapajós, 15 September 2002
We have reached the town of Santarém, which actually lies on the
Rio Tapajós, just off its confluence with the Amazonas. This river
is very green in color and where it meets the brown Amazonas you
get the same effect as in Manaus with the two rivers running side
by side for a long time before finally mingling into one. These
"meeting of the waters" are common throughout the Amazonas region,
where there are two distinctly different types of river: the "black
rivers" with dark and acidic but clear waters, and the "white
rivers" - muddy but far more noutrios waters.
We dock in front of Santarém, the two churches of colonial
baroque style facing us, waiting to pick up some more people before
continuing our journey downriver. Time to rest, play dominos or
check on the equipment. We have come some 600 kilometers since
Manaus and are about halfway to our destination. Most of us on
board are Brazilians from Manaus or São Paulo, but we also have
activists from Scotland, New Zealand, Canada and Austria. Together
with the boats crew we are currently about 25 people on board and
so far everything is very relaxed.
-Tommy
Amazonas River, 13-14 September 2002
After some hectic days of preparation we finally left the port
of Manaus, the metropolis in the heart of the Amazon, late on
Friday night and set off down the Rio Negro, on the banks of which
Manaus lies. But only around the first bend the Rio Negro meets the
Rio Solimões and together they form the actual Amazonas river. By
day this "meeting of the waters" is one of the major
tourist-attractions here, as the black and still waters of the Rio
Negro flow side by side with the yellowish and turbulent waters of
the Rio Solimões without mixing for many kilometers. Now, at night,
we only got a glimpse of the spectacle in the bright beam-light of
our ship, which the captain switches on now and then to look for
dangerous tree-trunks floating in the water.
The Greenpeace boat for this particular expedition is a typical
regional river-boat, built of wood, with hardly any draft but two
decks. This enables the ship to navigate in even very shallow
water, but the price is the relative instability when it encounters
waves or a storm. This is our home and office and general base for
all activities for the next couple of weeks. She is 23 meters long,
six meters at its widest and we all sleep in hammocks strung on the
open upper deck. It's a lively picture with all the different
hammocks in bright colors. There is a constant breeze which makes
the equatorial heat of the day bearable, but at night it can
actually be a bit too cool. So we all have a light blanket with us
in the hammock, together with a pillow. With these accessories and
the knowledge how to properly lay in a hammock (diagonally!) they
are comfortable at night and inviting for a lazy snooze during the
day.
And our first days are indeed peaceful as we sail down the huge
Amazonas. This river is at times up to 20 kilometers wide, and
often it is hard to make out the shores. Countless side-branches
crisscross each other with islands and sand-banks in between,
making navigation a nightmare - unless, of course, you are a local
pilot like our long-time captain Flavio, and know the whole country
by heart. Then you don't need any technical help but just drive the
boat for days without once having to look at a chart.
During the second night we also pass by the village of Obidos,
where the Amazonas is at its narrowest: only 1600 meters wide. It
is also at its deepest here, at 100 meters the bottom of the river
is far lower than the Atlantic these waters will eventually reach.
Here we leave the Brasilian state of Amazônas and enter Pará,
timber-country!
Tommy
Tommy Schweiger is a Greenpeace campaigner from Germany.