YOUTH ON THE MOVE

This story was originally published in the 1st edition of Voices for Just Climate Action Magazine in June 2023. Read the full magazine here

Laiane da Costa Santos inherited her parents’ engagement in the fight for the rights of Indigenous peoples living in the forest. Luiris da Silva Carvalho is proud of his family history and of recognizing himself as a traditional rubber tapper. Raylane Onofres Rodrigues has photography as a tool for socioenvironmental activism in her hands. And André da Silva Marciel’s ideal is to produce without destroying nature. These four young people have in common the desire to keep alive the territory they inhabit: the Extractive Reserve (Resex) Chico Mendes, which extends over 9,705.7 km² across seven municipalities in Acre and, despite being an international reference in sustainable development, leads the ranking of most deforested protected areas in Brazil.

Now they are at the forefront of defending not just the Amazon, but the planet. Laiane, Luiris, Raylane and André are part of the Voices for Just Climate Action (VCA) program, which in December 2022 brought together twenty-six young people in Xapuri, Acre, for a cycle of training. There were several workshops, such as the theater one “What we are made of and what we will become” with Marcos Luanderson, actor, and dancer from Acre; “Technical Communication and Emotion, how to develop both senses. I think, then I write and share” with Thanee Degasperi, manager of social networks for the Mídia Ninja collective; and “Stencil” with Subvertivo Lab, an artistic, creative, and experimental laboratory. Other activities involved topics such as the role of each person in the fight against the climate crisis and the importance of youth prominence.

Thanee applied a free learning process for young people to understand themselves as communicators and multimedia citizens. “With a cell phone in hand, they manage to be videographers, photographers, copywriters, editors… Today we have ‘media mass’ not the ‘mass media’ which few families oversee,” she says. “We have a mosaic of partiality where each one can bring their point of view. Everyone can be a communicator and create media content. The result will be the emergence of many narratives, the verve of communicators within territories that can understand themselves as agents of transformation.”

André, who is 20 years old and lives in the portion of the Resex Chico Mendes located in the municipality of Brasiléia, already hopes to promote changes. “I got to know new tools that will enable me to leverage the work we already do in the community, raising awareness about seeking a dignified life in association with human beings and nature. I will be able to document and record, not just for my community but for the world. I want to expose our way of life; how special it is to live in the Reserve. Further, I feel obliged to use these tools to make people aware of my territory, the surroundings and everywhere else about the danger we are living with the climate crisis,” he says.

The exchange of learning during the five days of VCA program activities was intense and preceded the 33rd Chico Mendes Week, which took place from December 15th to 22nd in Xapuri and Rio Branco. “This meeting showed that we are not alone,” celebrates Laiane, 32 years old. “Many young people are aware of their communities and have done important work. With each active one in their territories, we are strengthening a network for the climate.”

The activist, who carries in her DNA the fight for the people of the forest, with her mother being the first woman to join the union movement of rural workers in the region, has emerged as a young Acre leader. She participated, for example, in the panel “Connecting Climate and Social Justice to Leave no one behind,” promoted by Action for Sustainable Development during the 27th UN Climate Conference, COP27, in November 2022, in Egypt. On that occasion, Laiane presented the actions conducted in her territory for the conservation of the Amazon.

Karla Martins, from the Chico Mendes Committee, points out that the objective of the training cycle held in Xapuri was to sensitize young people about the importance of communication as resistance and confrontation with the process of deconstructing the identity of the forest – to avoid the systematic erasure of these peoples that has been promoted around the world. “The idea is to leverage these young voices, the exchange of knowledge in networks, dialogue and identify the challenges, what is being done, the communication strategies used, to increasingly strengthen this role of youth,” she says.

Disseminating new forms of struggle is essential for young people to feel driven to maintain the legacy of generations that came before. One of the moments that most moved Luiris during the VCA event was the meeting with Raimundão Mendes, 77 years old, cousin of Chico Mendes and one of the main living leaders of Acre. “He inspires me. He is a celebrated figure, like one of the family. He fought along with my father, alongside Chico Mendes, I am inspired by his way of being a traditional rubber tapper. Listening to his speech, I realized that I need to recognize myself as a rubber tapper. I am a rubber tapper, and I will no longer deny it. I am a Brazil-nut breaker, I love what I do,” says Luiris, 22 years old.

Raylane joins in. “Listening to Raimundão, Sabá Marinho and Leide Aquino was very moving and encouraged me to carry with me the fight for social and climate justice in my territory,” she points out. The 18-year-old adds that the five days of immersion in the workshops held in Xapuri strengthened her desire to remain firm in activism. “Preserving the forest, talking about my culture with pride, where I came from, inspired me to increasingly mobilize young people in my community,” she says.

Dialogues between tradition and modernity
How to motivate the connection between modernity and tradition? Where were you at 17, 18 and 19? These questions were encouraged so that leaders and companions of Chico Mendes – such as Raimundão, Sabá Marinho, Leide Aquino and his daughter, Angela Mendes, who is president of the Chico Mendes Committee – could tell young people what it was like in the past and how the fight has been today of the oldest to keep the Amazon alive and for the peoples of the forest to have their rights respected.

Angela spoke about her relationship with her father and how her awakening to the call to preserve the forest came with the letter from Chico Mendes, written few months before he was murdered, in December 1988. Addressed to the young people of the year 2120, the utopian narrative celebrates the centenary of a world revolution that, in the imagination of the environmental activist, made the planet socially fair for all peoples.

“I was called by my father’s letter, and you are here for the same reason, to take on this revolution. This struggle resulted in the Alliance of Forest Peoples and the creation of extractive reserves. He calls on the youth of this generation to do this and act for the planet. What you are doing here is a revolution in these days. A revolution based on communication, writing and speech, living experience. You are the voices in defense of the territory, of cultural identity, and this is important for your community and the world,” highlights Angela.

Comunic(A)ctive Network
The Comunic(A)tiva Youth Network, is a coalition formed by the Chico Mendes Committee in partnership with the Union of Rural Workers of Brasiléia (STR), the Association of Residents and Producers of the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve in Xapuri (AMOPREX), the National Council of Extractive Populations (CNS), the Casa Ninja Amazônia and the Liga das Quadrilhas Juninas do Acre (LIQUAJAC).

The purpose of the Communic(A)tive Youth Network is to create a robust network of mutual empowerment and common agendas. “The aim is to have a direct impact on the creation of public policies and financial contributions, establishing alliances and raising awareness in their territories and with society in general,” emphasizes Karla Martins, from the Chico Mendes Committee.

About one hundred young people from the Resex Chico Mendes in Xapuri, Brasiléia, Epitaciolândia, Assis Brasil and Sena Madureira and in the urban areas of these municipalities, in addition to Rio Branco, are benefiting from meetings and training on communication.

Voices for Just Climate Action Magazine is a publication collectively produced by the VCA Brazil Regional Team and the organizations supported by the program in the country. Read the full magazine here.