WEBVTT

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[music]

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[music]

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[sil.]

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It was seven years ago when this film started
in the heart of the Amazonian forest.

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[sil.]

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The year was 1980

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and from this beginning in the jungle,
the story will move to its conclusion

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in the United States Congress in 1987.

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[sil.]

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The road builders called this a
penetration road. And our film follows

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how it transformed to a
primeval forest into farmland

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and how this caused an
international dispute.

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[sil.]

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The central role in all that happened

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was that of the penetration road
and its main highway which ran

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from the coast of Brazil into the jungle
state of Rondonia. This BR 364 highway

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was about to be paved
with the World Bank loan

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that would cause massive controversy.
But at the start,

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the main highway was unpaved and the
429 penetration road was heading

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towards the first of our central characters,
the unknown Uru Eu Wau Wau tribe.

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At the time, the Indian agency
was trying to attract the tribe

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out of the forest.

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These were the first pictures
ever taken of the tribe.

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[sil.]

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At the same time across the nearby hills,
one of the main characters in our story

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was about to appear as hundreds
of colonists arrived daily

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at the frontier towns along the highway.

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[music]

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Families that were poor
and landless were given

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free plots of virgin
forest by the land agency.

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The title deed

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was usually for about 100 acres and
at this stage, few colonists guessed

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that their land would be so poor
that many would abandon it.

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[sil.]

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This is Renato who we were
to follow for five years.

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[sil.]

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(inaudible) was one of his neighbors.

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[sil.]

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By the beginning of 1981,
the government expedition

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was finding more and more Indian camps.

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[sil.]

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There was to be no real contact
with the Indians until the summer.

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At the start of that dry season,

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the settlers began to clear their land
just as all the trees came to flower.

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[music]

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But the flower of the settlers\'
song is the white flower

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of the coffee plantation, the (inaudible).

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[sil.]

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Renato and Maria were burning
15 acres of their coffee

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and another 50 of their neighbors.

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[sil.]

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Everything the colonists hoped for depended
on this act, which meant a literal holocaust

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of the forest and its Indians.

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[music]

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So much forest burned that year,

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year was so dense with smoke
that for a time even planes

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were grounded by the government.

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It was during this summer

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of blinding smoke that
the Uru Eu Wau Wau tribe

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went through its first weeks of content.

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[non-English narration]

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The Indian agency was trying
to win their confidence

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to protect them against the bullets
and disease of the frontier.

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But for the Indians, this was the first
step in a long and tortured journey

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of adaptation to our society.

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[sil.]

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At the time,

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they just took their presence and
went off to raid the colonists.

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[sil.]

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[non-English narration]

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Maria and her children were
to become as much the victims

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of this story as the Indians.

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In September, there was

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a hot blustering wind and the earth
from what was once the forest floor

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was sucked up as a fine yellow dust.

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The dust from the trucks mixed
with the smoke from the trees

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and the world\'s greatest forest
just seem to be fading away.

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But for the settlers in the frontier towns,

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the time of smock was the time of planting.
It was the start

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of their (inaudible)

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Sadly, Maria\'s fears were to be confirmed

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by the first agronomists
to pay them a visit.

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[sil.]

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The rains of 1982

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brought malaria for Renato\'s children.
Unlike most of the colonists in this area,

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Renato abandoned the land that
he had hoped to keep forever.

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[sil.]

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This was all there was to show

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for two years of suffering
and a forest in ashes.

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Even the coffee bushes were still
minute in comparison with those

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with a family now worked as
sharecroppers that one in Rondonia\'s

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few areas of good soil.

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[sil.]

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Rento\'s problem was the
shortage of good land and this

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was the direct result of
the colonization program.

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Their hang of a land was so great

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that the government encouraged
migration to reduce social conflict

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in the rest of Brazil. But this regardless

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of whether there was enough land or whether
it was suited to their type of agriculture.

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The plots were

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in colonization areas grouped on
both sides of the main highway.

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And now this was about to be improved
encouraging even more migration.

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The migrants,

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the whole development,
depended on the great convoys

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from the rest of Brazil.

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[music]

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That rainy season, thousands of trucks

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were halted with produce
rotting in the mind.

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And so it was decided to pave the
dirt road and to ask the World Bank

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for part of the money.

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And the World Bank eventually lent

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a quarter of a billion dollars to pave the road
and nearly another quarter for feeder roads

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and subsidiary projects. Their survey teams

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visited constantly and it\'s significant
that their experts warned the bank

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about nearly everything
that was to go wrong.

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I was asked by the World Bank to evaluate the
feasibility of the plan which the Brazilian agency

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had produced for safeguarding
interest of the Indians in the area

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and the competence of the
Brazilian (inaudible)

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to carry out those plans. And very simply,

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I found the plan silly and ignorant.

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Their initial reaction was to essentially
suppress the distribution of my report

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within the bank itself. In a serious sense, I
don\'t think they paid very much attention.

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I think that the bank knows that it\'s
going to give a certain amount of money

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to certain regions or certain
countries every year,

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and the project that it supposedly
gives the money to are merely pretext.

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And I think that all the consultancy
and all that evaluation that\'s done

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is by a way of window-dressing.

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So despite the warnings the vast road-building
project began in the summer \'82

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with a third of the capital from the World
Bank, two-thirds from the government.

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[sil.]

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In all the controversy about it,

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no one was ever against the road itself,

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just against paving it before Rondonia could
cope with the migration it would encourage.

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For example, take this speech
by the governor of Rondonia.

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[sil.]

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[non-English narration]

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With migrants pouring in, the main
characters in our film could only lose.

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[sil.]

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The Indians appeared daily more
confused, almost disorientated

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by the increasing pressure of our society.

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[sil.]

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The flood of migrants also reduced to
an arduous hopes and colonists like him

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of acquiring better land.

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It was tragic that for
our colonist\'s family

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all the destruction of the frontier
had so far been for nothing.

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[sil.]

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From 1982, Renato\'s family

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was to move roughly once a
year providing annual witness

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to the frontiers ever-increasing
senseless waste.

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This is the region of (inaudible)

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where the colonist Renato
abandoned his land.

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In fact, so many colonists are giving up their
plots that something must be fundamentally wrong

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with the whole colonization scheme. And that\'s
why we have decided to film and observe

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what\'s going to happen here.
We will now start by looking

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at 3 different types of colonization.
One of Rondonia\'s largest branches

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the Rio Candeias was losing
its fight with the jungle.

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It\'s pasture had been overgrown
by a (inaudible) scrub

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that looks green but is
useless as (inaudible).

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[sil.]

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The cost of weeding

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according to the manager was
greater than the possible income.

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[non-English narration]

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[sil.]

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In charge of the cattle, the
ranch had a qualified vet.

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What we\'re seeing here is one
of the great (inaudible)

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that are being committed in this country
in the name of projects. Growing cattle

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in the Amazon jungle area is
perhaps the most stupid thing

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that could ever be done in this area.
Intensive cattle growing means producing

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only a few dozen kilos of
meat per hectare per year,

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and this is not even sustainable as the
manager of this farm are considered

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production goes down every year.

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As an alternative to cattle, Rondonia\'s biggest
industrial farm had planted rubber and cocoa.

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But according to the owner
Ugo Fry (inaudible),

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these were proving vulnerable
to Amazonian disease.

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[sil.]

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Rondonia\'s third main type of agriculture

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was that of the (inaudible), like Renato
whose annual crops need good soil.

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And of course, the first wave of
colonists got the best arable land.

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Rondonia\'s soil

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is so variable that just a few
plots away we found land so poor

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that even weeds wouldn\'t grow.
It\'s ironic that to produce

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this semi-desert, the colonists
cut down a rich productive forest

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that took centuries to grow.

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This fantastic tree trunk
is 30 meters long.

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It belonged to a tree, a Brazilian (inaudible)
tree that was at least 40 meters tall.

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While this tree was alive, it produced more
food than this plantation is now producing.

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In fact, as you can see,
this is a sick crop

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on a leeched out soil even one
year after deforestation.

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In later colonization projects

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like this one part financed
by the World Bank, the survey

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included soil analysis, and most
colonists received reasonable land.

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The land agency also did a good job providing
plots properly marked out and registered.

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But the farms were rigidly
divided without reference

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to the terrain so that many had
no water or included rocky hills.

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The colonists

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were largely farmers driven
off the land in the south

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receiving free plots to
reduce social conflict.

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Brought without training to the jungle, they tried
to rebuild the European-style farms they had lost.

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But this type of temperate zone agriculture
is unsustainable in the tropics,

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a point that was put to the
head of Rondonia\'s land agency.

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A dumping ground for social problems or a
natural wealth to be carefully developed.

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The argument continued in
Brasilia then Washington.

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[sil.]

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Mr. Lutzenberger,

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we\'re very pleased that you\'re with us.
Please, come to the witness table.

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Mr. Chairman, the World
Bank is financing a project

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the Paulo Northwestern project, the
Northwest (inaudible) project,

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a project of $1.6 billion,

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which means constructing a central
highway and feeder roads and setting up

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the infrastructure for settlers
in the state of Rondonia.

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Thirty percent of this project is funded by
the World Bank. I would like Congress to know

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that the World Bank has written my
conditions into its agreements,

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for instance, the respective Indian
reserves and not making colonization

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as schemes in areas with unsuitable soils.

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And these agreements are being flouted
by our government. They have been

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blatantly flouted. So actually the World
Bank should now cease its funding

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for this project. Then it would then
also be setting a very important sign,

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signal for further
development of the Amazon.

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One issue, a particular concern is the highway
that the Brazilian government is completing

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through the (inaudible) Valley in the
Rondonia area, that\'s the highways BR 429.

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That was the highway which we saw
pictures of the construction of

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in the film we witnessed earlier today. The
construction of this highway and the settlement of

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8,000 to 10,000 sufferers in that area is
a direct violation of 2 of the provisions

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of the loan agreement between the
Republic of Brazil and the World Bank.

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The hearings led Congressman
Scheuer to write to the World Bank

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through the US Treasury expressing deep
concern over the Polonoroeste project.

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When this produced a dismissive reply,
Senator Kasten, whose committee approved

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US contributions to the bank, wrote a decisive
letter describing the World Bank\'s response

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as an insult, and warning them that
securing support for US contributions

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to multilateral development
institutions is difficult at best.

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We hoped that this would lead
to the stopping of the funding

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of the overall Polonoroeste project.
At that point,

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we were aware of the fact that it was…
it was bad, it was wrong, it was a mess,

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and we didn\'t want US taxpayer dollars
going to fund projects like that.

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We\'ve talked to Senator Kasten, he\'s
talked to (inaudible). We put it

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as strongly as he put it. I think in
Brazil, we have made a major effort

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to help the Brazilian government implement it in all
legislation which is (inaudible) and which is intended

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to protect the native Indian population
legislation which often hasn\'t been implemented

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as well there should be. In all these
projects, we have tried to make sure

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that the Indian population
is well protected

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and that our supervision missions
have the right to inspect

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the progress of implementation and that isn\'t properly
taken care of as covenanted with us and those operations

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at our financing will
stop for those projects.

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With mounting criticism from the
press and within a few weeks

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of Senator Kasten\'s decisive letter,
the World Bank cut off the loan.

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[sil.]

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Soon after the Brazilian government started marking
the boundaries of the Uru Eu Wau Wau reserve

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and the bank used this to
justify resuming the loan.

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However, the whole point
of demarcating boundaries

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was the expulsion of squatters.

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And this has never been carried out even
though the Brazilian army supervised the work.

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[sil.]

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[sil.]

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In an Uru Eu Wau Wau village less
than a day\'s walk from the boundary,

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the new leader of the government expedition
was dealing with a flu epidemics

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quote from contact with the invaders.

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[sil.]

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[sil.]

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The 429 penetration road originally rooted

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across the Indian reserve was now
completed further to the east

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opening up the virgin forests
of the (inaudible) Valley.

00:38:50.000 --> 00:38:54.999
[sil.]

00:38:55.000 --> 00:38:59.999
The first buses went through
in the summer of 1985

00:39:00.000 --> 00:39:04.999
and almost immediately, the
forest on the very poor soils

00:39:05.000 --> 00:39:09.999
by the road started to be cut and burned.

00:39:10.000 --> 00:39:14.999
[sil.]

00:39:15.000 --> 00:39:19.999
So we asked the World Bank

00:39:20.000 --> 00:39:24.999
why they allowed this to happen when the loan
agreement had a specific clause against it.

00:39:25.000 --> 00:39:29.999
Our belief was that rather
than trying to stay flatly

00:39:30.000 --> 00:39:34.999
and look you will not build the road. I\'m not quite sure
that we have that degree of influence anyhow in Brazil.

00:39:35.000 --> 00:39:39.999
It was far more important
to encourage the Brazilians

00:39:40.000 --> 00:39:44.999
to carry out a proper environmental
impact studies that one could assess

00:39:45.000 --> 00:39:49.999
properly the likely effects of this road.

00:39:50.000 --> 00:39:54.999
And that has been agreed to and that\'s what
they\'re now doing. Do you think that in 1984,

00:39:55.000 --> 00:39:59.999
you could\'ve asked for that environmental
impact study before the road went through?

00:40:00.000 --> 00:40:04.999
I don\'t know.

00:40:05.000 --> 00:40:09.999
Two years later,

00:40:10.000 --> 00:40:14.999
this environmental impact study is
still underway and so much forest

00:40:15.000 --> 00:40:19.999
has already been burned that it
attracted from Washington a specialist

00:40:20.000 --> 00:40:24.999
analyzing deforestation through
satellite photographs.

00:40:25.000 --> 00:40:29.999
We have taken this highway
429 to get a better feeling

00:40:30.000 --> 00:40:34.999
of what is actually going on in the
forests of this part of Rondonia

00:40:35.000 --> 00:40:39.999
and to get a better interpretation of the
satellite data which we\'re currently analyzing.

00:40:40.000 --> 00:40:44.999
Am I right that recently you believe
that the rate of deforestation

00:40:45.000 --> 00:40:49.999
has been doubling every two years? Very close
to it indeed. By 1985, we have calculated

00:40:50.000 --> 00:40:54.999
on the base of the images of this
kind that more than 11% of the state

00:40:55.000 --> 00:40:59.999
has been deforested, most of it
in the last two, three years.

00:41:00.000 --> 00:41:04.999
The white is deforestation

00:41:05.000 --> 00:41:09.999
along the main highway and it
visibly increases year by year.

00:41:10.000 --> 00:41:14.999
[sil.]

00:41:15.000 --> 00:41:19.999
If the same deforestation rate continues, does that mean
that in the next two years Rondonia will be 20% deforested

00:41:20.000 --> 00:41:24.999
and in six years 80% deforested?

00:41:25.000 --> 00:41:29.999
Yes, if we make that assumption which is not
always easy to make, we can assume that

00:41:30.000 --> 00:41:34.999
by the end of 1996 or by the end of the
century, more than 80% of the forest

00:41:35.000 --> 00:41:39.999
of the state of Rondonia will disappear.

00:41:40.000 --> 00:41:44.999
Did this greatly increased rate of deforestation
start with the paving of the highway?

00:41:45.000 --> 00:41:49.999
Yes, indeed as this graph
summarizing all satellite analysis

00:41:50.000 --> 00:41:54.999
of the last two years will show
it is essentially between 1984

00:41:55.000 --> 00:41:59.999
and 1985 that the deforestation has
had the largest impact on the state.

00:42:00.000 --> 00:42:04.999
And this is precisely when
highway 364 was paved.

00:42:05.000 --> 00:42:09.999
In the light of this recent NASA graph,

00:42:10.000 --> 00:42:14.999
does the bank no regret to having made the
Polonoroeste loan. No, I don\'t think we do

00:42:15.000 --> 00:42:19.999
because I think the implication of your
question is that there\'s cause and effect

00:42:20.000 --> 00:42:24.999
that because the road was paved
before there was flood of migrants.

00:42:25.000 --> 00:42:29.999
Perhaps, paving the road had some effect on
this but I doubt whether it had much effect

00:42:30.000 --> 00:42:34.999
because what we\'re seeing
elsewhere throughout

00:42:35.000 --> 00:42:39.999
the whole Amazon basin in Brazil
is even without paved roads,

00:42:40.000 --> 00:42:44.999
in fact, even in some cases, even
without roads people are moving in.

00:42:45.000 --> 00:42:49.999
And we certainly believe that the problems
that the… the… the factors that brought about

00:42:50.000 --> 00:42:54.999
this very big influence which I agree was much greater
than certainly I think the Brazilian government

00:42:55.000 --> 00:42:59.999
or we in the bank expected would
take place over the… over the years.

00:43:00.000 --> 00:43:04.999
But the factors behind
that push our problems

00:43:05.000 --> 00:43:09.999
that are occurring elsewhere in Brazil.

00:43:10.000 --> 00:43:14.999
In the area where we first filmed Renato,

00:43:15.000 --> 00:43:19.999
the results of five years of
colonization were now evident.

00:43:20.000 --> 00:43:24.999
By 1986, 80% of Renato\'s
immediate neighbors had sold

00:43:25.000 --> 00:43:29.999
or abandoned their land and 29
plots on Renato\'s speed erode

00:43:30.000 --> 00:43:34.999
had been bought up by one single family.
In fact, most of the plots

00:43:35.000 --> 00:43:39.999
appeared to be held for land
speculation rather than agriculture.

00:43:40.000 --> 00:43:44.999
In the stampede for land that was set
off by the paving of the 364 road

00:43:45.000 --> 00:43:49.999
that this is what happened to the
people we filmed 5 years ago.

00:43:50.000 --> 00:43:54.999
Here we have the remains of Renato\'s house. This is
where we filmed Renato and his family planting coffee.

00:43:55.000 --> 00:43:59.999
But as you can see, the land
is completely abandoned.

00:44:00.000 --> 00:44:04.999
At the large ranch, where
we filmed this scene,

00:44:05.000 --> 00:44:09.999
all that was left of the ranch house
was rusty safe and their vast

00:44:10.000 --> 00:44:14.999
5,000 acre clearing had been
abandoned to squatters. In addition,

00:44:15.000 --> 00:44:19.999
Rondonia\'s largest agriculturalist had
just plowed up most of his cocoa,

00:44:20.000 --> 00:44:25.000
coffee, and rubber.

00:45:20.000 --> 00:45:24.999
In the capital of Rondonia,
the new governor

00:45:25.000 --> 00:45:29.999
spoke about the colonization crisis at a
citizen\'s conference in the summer of 1986.

00:45:30.000 --> 00:45:38.000
[non-English narration]

00:46:20.000 --> 00:46:24.999
Incredibly,

00:46:25.000 --> 00:46:29.999
they started the road again.

00:46:30.000 --> 00:46:34.999
This time the loan

00:46:35.000 --> 00:46:39.999
was not from the World Bank but a sister
multinational bank in Washington. The

00:46:40.000 --> 00:46:44.999
inter-American development bank financed
the extension of the paved road

00:46:45.000 --> 00:46:49.999
from Rondonia to Acre, the next state.
And as the road drove on,

00:46:50.000 --> 00:46:54.999
so the forest burnt and
land speculation sowed.

00:46:55.000 --> 00:46:59.999
[sil.]

00:47:00.000 --> 00:47:04.999
In Amazonia,

00:47:05.000 --> 00:47:09.999
deforestation, roads, and land
speculation are inextricably linked.

00:47:10.000 --> 00:47:14.999
No major deforestation occurs without
a road, and there is no new road

00:47:15.000 --> 00:47:19.999
which does not set off a scramble
for land and soaring land prices.

00:47:20.000 --> 00:47:28.000
[sil.]

00:47:35.000 --> 00:47:39.999
Close to the road,

00:47:40.000 --> 00:47:45.000
we found that our old friend Renato had
joined a land rush and moved to Acre.

00:48:25.000 --> 00:48:33.000
[sil.]

00:48:40.000 --> 00:48:44.999
What we see here is exactly the same type
of development policy as in Rondonia.

00:48:45.000 --> 00:48:49.999
In many of the cases, the settlers are the same and
contractors are the same. Eleven million dollars

00:48:50.000 --> 00:48:54.999
has already been handed over by the Inter-American
Development Bank. And as you can see,

00:48:55.000 --> 00:48:59.999
road-building is going at full blast

00:49:00.000 --> 00:49:04.999
and yet not one concrete action was taken
for the protection of the environment.

00:49:05.000 --> 00:49:09.999
I asked the taxpayers in the developed
countries who ultimately provide

00:49:10.000 --> 00:49:14.999
the funds for the World Bank and the
Inter-American Development Bank,

00:49:15.000 --> 00:49:19.999
\"Do you really want your hard-earned
tax money spent on this folly?\"

00:49:20.000 --> 00:49:25.000
Even the governor calls it devastation.

00:49:35.000 --> 00:49:43.000
[music]

00:50:05.000 --> 00:50:09.999
The magnificent virgin forests of Acre with
the next to be threatened by the speculators.

00:50:10.000 --> 00:50:14.999
But unlike Rondonia, these
forests are defended

00:50:15.000 --> 00:50:19.999
by Seringueiro or rubber tappers
who live and work in the jungle.

00:50:20.000 --> 00:50:25.000
[sil.]

00:50:55.000 --> 00:50:59.999
[sil.]

00:51:00.000 --> 00:51:04.999
Seringueiros make two cuts a week,
a sustainable use of forest

00:51:05.000 --> 00:51:09.999
that can last forever.

00:51:10.000 --> 00:51:14.999
Chico\'s house is in a
clearing just large enough

00:51:15.000 --> 00:51:19.999
to feed a few cattle and support
a family with basic food crops

00:51:20.000 --> 00:51:25.000
like maize and mandioca.

00:51:35.000 --> 00:51:40.000
[non-English narration]

00:52:00.000 --> 00:52:04.999
The clear land,

00:52:05.000 --> 00:52:09.999
a ranch like this must either expel the Seringueiro\'s
living on it or buy their squatter\'s rights.

00:52:10.000 --> 00:52:18.000
[sil.]

00:53:10.000 --> 00:53:14.999
For over a decade, the Seringueiros had been
carrying out this type of unarmed protest

00:53:15.000 --> 00:53:19.999
to persuade ranch workers
not to cut down the forest.

00:53:20.000 --> 00:53:25.000
[sil.]

00:54:05.000 --> 00:54:09.999
[non-English narration]

00:54:10.000 --> 00:54:14.999
The Seringueiro action stopped deforestation
temporarily while they fought the ranchers

00:54:15.000 --> 00:54:19.999
through public protest and in court.
The ranchers want police protection

00:54:20.000 --> 00:54:24.999
but this was later withdrawn

00:54:25.000 --> 00:54:29.999
so the Seringueiros had stalemated the very powerful
Bordon company, Brazil\'s biggest meatpacker

00:54:30.000 --> 00:54:34.999
in Sao Paolo 2,000 miles away.

00:54:35.000 --> 00:54:43.000
[sil.]

00:55:15.000 --> 00:55:20.000
[sil.]

00:55:55.000 --> 00:55:59.999
Bordon had only been able to cut
down some of Antonio\'s rubber trees.

00:56:00.000 --> 00:56:04.999
And because of the delay in
burning, what they did cut was now

00:56:05.000 --> 00:56:10.000
overgrown with fresh green scrub.

00:56:45.000 --> 00:56:49.999
We flew over the Bordon ranch in the smoke

00:56:50.000 --> 00:56:54.999
and turbulence of the burning season.

00:56:55.000 --> 00:56:59.999
Though they\' fire the
forest they had cut down,

00:57:00.000 --> 00:57:04.999
it was burning so badly that it
would be useless as pasture.

00:57:05.000 --> 00:57:09.999
But the tragedy is that no Seringueiro
will ever cut wild rubber

00:57:10.000 --> 00:57:14.999
on this land again. And last year, there
was more burning, more devastation

00:57:15.000 --> 00:57:19.999
than ever before. As the
satellite photograph shows

00:57:20.000 --> 00:57:24.999
the main deforestation is around
the capital in the center

00:57:25.000 --> 00:57:29.999
and along the roads out of it,
like the one into Chico\'s area.

00:57:30.000 --> 00:57:34.999
The Seringueiros who once
lived here were ruthlessly

00:57:35.000 --> 00:57:39.999
driven out to the forests of
Bolivia from where they return

00:57:40.000 --> 00:57:44.999
every week to sell their rubber.

00:57:45.000 --> 00:57:53.000
[sil.]

00:57:55.000 --> 00:57:59.999
They bring large balls of smoked rubber

00:58:00.000 --> 00:58:05.000
and say that over 10,000 Brazilian
Seringueiros have been driven into Bolivia.

01:00:15.000 --> 01:00:20.000
[sil.]

01:00:30.000 --> 01:00:38.000
[sil.]

01:01:05.000 --> 01:01:09.999
Do you agree the World Bank
destroyed (inaudible)? No.

01:01:10.000 --> 01:01:14.999
We want the World Bank, we want you guys to know the we\'re going to be
back here next here. Throughout the United States 75 demonstrations

01:01:15.000 --> 01:01:19.999
going on right now and other
communities around the country.

01:01:20.000 --> 01:01:24.999
If these very reasonable changes are not

01:01:25.000 --> 01:01:29.999
implemented within 12 months,

01:01:30.000 --> 01:01:34.999
we will launch a worldwide campaign to
dissuade governments and private investors

01:01:35.000 --> 01:01:39.999
from financing the World Bank
and saying destructive plans.

01:01:40.000 --> 01:01:44.999
The Word Bank wants us to believe
that when they helped finance

01:01:45.000 --> 01:01:49.999
the projects that are destroying the forest
that they\'re helping the people in those areas.

01:01:50.000 --> 01:01:54.999
Now this is a big lie, an infamous lie.
The opposite is true.

01:01:55.000 --> 01:01:59.999
The people living in the forest, they have an interest
in the preservation. The people living in them,

01:02:00.000 --> 01:02:04.999
they want them to be preserved.
It\'s their livelihood.

01:02:05.000 --> 01:02:09.999
The World Band, the Inter-American Development
Bank know perfectly well what they\'re doing,

01:02:10.000 --> 01:02:14.999
they know what is happening. And in so far
as they continue funding these projects,

01:02:15.000 --> 01:02:19.999
trying to put the blame on the respective
governments and the countries affected,

01:02:20.000 --> 01:02:24.999
they are being me (inaudible)
with the criminals.

01:02:25.000 --> 01:02:29.999
Congress was already responding
to the environmentalists.

01:02:30.000 --> 01:02:34.999
The budget of October 1986 cut US
contributions to the multilateral banks

01:02:35.000 --> 01:02:39.999
by over 20%. But though the
Inter-American Development Bank

01:02:40.000 --> 01:02:44.999
loss roughly $200 million, they
seem the least likely to reform.

01:02:45.000 --> 01:02:50.000
[sil.]

01:02:55.000 --> 01:02:59.999
The rubber tappers of Acre are a much
larger population group than the Indians,

01:03:00.000 --> 01:03:04.999
and will be even more affected
by the deforestation stimulated

01:03:05.000 --> 01:03:09.999
by the paving of the road. They\'ve complained that
they were not consulted by the IDB like the Indians,

01:03:10.000 --> 01:03:14.999
why was that?

01:03:15.000 --> 01:03:19.999
They were… they have been consulted. They are being
consulted right at this minute from our executing agency,

01:03:20.000 --> 01:03:24.999
talking representatives of
the rubber tappers today.

01:03:25.000 --> 01:03:33.000
And in the future, we expect
the context to continue.

01:03:40.000 --> 01:03:44.999
The whole history of the project in
Rondonia was of various types of plans

01:03:45.000 --> 01:03:49.999
most of which the government was
unable to enforce. What can you do

01:03:50.000 --> 01:03:58.000
to see that the government doesn\'t
force its promises under this loan?

01:04:00.000 --> 01:04:04.999
Well, I certainly, fully expect that all measures
that had been planned for will be forthcoming.

01:04:05.000 --> 01:04:09.999
I certainly think that… me and my colleagues and all the
staff of the Inter-American Development is committed to

01:04:10.000 --> 01:04:14.999
follow the actions of the Brazilian
government in bringing those

01:04:15.000 --> 01:04:20.000
measures to really protect the
environment and the Indian communities.

01:04:25.000 --> 01:04:29.999
Back in the capital of Acre, the main campaign
contributions to the government party

01:04:30.000 --> 01:04:34.999
came from the road contractors. Contractors
receiving finance ultimately derived

01:04:35.000 --> 01:04:39.999
from the Inter-American Development Bank.

01:04:40.000 --> 01:04:48.000
[sil.]

01:04:50.000 --> 01:04:54.999
Never had so much money being
spent on an Acre campaign,

01:04:55.000 --> 01:04:59.999
and the opposition claim that people\'s
votes were being bought outright for money

01:05:00.000 --> 01:05:05.000
or for favors from government house.

01:05:25.000 --> 01:05:29.999
It\'s election day

01:05:30.000 --> 01:05:35.000
in Chico\'s hometown (inaudible)

01:05:40.000 --> 01:05:44.999
The atmosphere

01:05:45.000 --> 01:05:49.999
was so charged with vote buying that
many people are (inaudible) for money

01:05:50.000 --> 01:05:55.000
even though he\'s penniless.

01:06:30.000 --> 01:06:35.000
[non-English narration]

01:06:50.000 --> 01:06:58.000
[non-English narration]

01:07:05.000 --> 01:07:10.000
[sil.]

01:07:45.000 --> 01:07:53.000
[sil.]

01:07:55.000 --> 01:07:59.999
With votes selling according to street
gossip was little as one to three pounds.

01:08:00.000 --> 01:08:04.999
We wondered whether Chico had
ever really had a chance.

01:08:05.000 --> 01:08:13.000
[sil.]

01:08:50.000 --> 01:08:55.000
[sil.]

01:09:15.000 --> 01:09:19.999
At party headquarters,

01:09:20.000 --> 01:09:24.999
the final results in Brazil\'s
complex proportional representation

01:09:25.000 --> 01:09:29.999
were recorded on the blackboard. Chico got

01:09:30.000 --> 01:09:34.999
three times as many votes as other part
candidates for the state legislature.

01:09:35.000 --> 01:09:39.999
But because the party won only
three percent of the total vote,

01:09:40.000 --> 01:09:44.999
he wasn\'t elected. And of
course, the road drove on.

01:09:45.000 --> 01:09:49.999
When the first tarmac was laid

01:09:50.000 --> 01:09:54.999
at the end of \'86, Chico protested.

01:09:55.000 --> 01:09:59.999
Though he was not against the road itself, not one
of the promise measures to protect the environment

01:10:00.000 --> 01:10:05.000
had yet to come into being.

01:10:10.000 --> 01:10:15.000
[non-English narration]

01:10:25.000 --> 01:10:29.999
The environmental groups
lobbying at the meeting

01:10:30.000 --> 01:10:34.999
had invited Chico Mendes to see if the bank\'s
directors would be meet him and listen to his case.

01:10:35.000 --> 01:10:39.999
[sil.]

01:10:40.000 --> 01:10:44.999
The all countries that are very strong opposing the
introduction in the landing of environmental concerns

01:10:45.000 --> 01:10:49.999
because they have positive implications.
And of course,

01:10:50.000 --> 01:10:54.999
the US government does not view it that
way. We feel that one of the mechanisms is

01:10:55.000 --> 01:10:59.999
to stop funding when it\'s justified.
But the first time

01:11:00.000 --> 01:11:04.999
the directors were able to hear someone speaking
on behalf of the peoples of the forest.

01:11:05.000 --> 01:11:10.000
The Swedish director represents nine
European countries including Britain.

01:11:25.000 --> 01:11:29.999
He says (inaudible)

01:11:30.000 --> 01:11:34.999
has economically brought nothing to (inaudible).
Yeah. The only thing that\'s been good for until now

01:11:35.000 --> 01:11:39.999
has been the concentration of (inaudible).

01:11:40.000 --> 01:11:44.999
The opinion in our days is really
is that environmental degradation

01:11:45.000 --> 01:11:49.999
is really effecting the poor the most.

01:11:50.000 --> 01:11:54.999
AT the social and official functions,

01:11:55.000 --> 01:11:59.999
the Acre road must have been informally discussed.
For on the last day the British governor

01:12:00.000 --> 01:12:04.999
and Swedish director made
unexpected statements.

01:12:05.000 --> 01:12:09.999
There was as a result of pressures from our
constituency and others, an action plan

01:12:10.000 --> 01:12:14.999
which was designed to take good care of the certain
environmental factors. And my understanding

01:12:15.000 --> 01:12:19.999
is that the Environmental Defence
Conference considers it not a challenge,

01:12:20.000 --> 01:12:24.999
the abstinence if that path. What they are saying
is that it is not been effected when put into force

01:12:25.000 --> 01:12:29.999
at the right time. In the case of this
particular question which you put to me,

01:12:30.000 --> 01:12:34.999
I think the answer has to be put squarely to the
management, and we will certainly be doing that.

01:12:35.000 --> 01:12:39.999
We may consider to take some
action to… to get it on…

01:12:40.000 --> 01:12:44.999
on the right track. And I
should also tell you that,

01:12:45.000 --> 01:12:49.999
I was invited to come down to the area

01:12:50.000 --> 01:12:54.999
by this Brazilian (inaudible),

01:12:55.000 --> 01:12:59.999
and I might consider that.

01:13:00.000 --> 01:13:04.999
At the end of the conference,

01:13:05.000 --> 01:13:10.000
we asked Chico what he hoped
would come out of his visit.

01:13:30.000 --> 01:13:34.999
A week later, everything came together

01:13:35.000 --> 01:13:39.999
in Senator Kasten\'s Washington office where
a decisive letter was about to be sent.

01:13:40.000 --> 01:13:44.999
What we\'re seeing today unfortunately

01:13:45.000 --> 01:13:49.999
is the Inter-American Development Bank not
living up to its basic responsibilities

01:13:50.000 --> 01:13:54.999
expressed in a contract I might
add to have the components,

01:13:55.000 --> 01:13:59.999
the environmental components as
key and primary consideration.

01:14:00.000 --> 01:14:04.999
Now what our letter says and it\'s signed by
the now the chairman and I\'m ranking member

01:14:05.000 --> 01:14:09.999
of the key committee which funds the
Inter-American Development Bank.

01:14:10.000 --> 01:14:14.999
We\'ve had a tough time with them from the beginning with this project in particular.
And I think you could look at this as a… as a shot over the bow if you will.

01:14:15.000 --> 01:14:19.999
If they continue not to heed the
basic environmental components

01:14:20.000 --> 01:14:24.999
of this agreement of the Acre project,
I think that the entire funding

01:14:25.000 --> 01:14:29.999
for the Inter-American Development Bank, the
funding from the United States of America

01:14:30.000 --> 01:14:34.999
could be in jeopardy.

01:14:35.000 --> 01:14:39.999
Alex, what\'s this letter
about and where\'s it going?

01:14:40.000 --> 01:14:44.999
This is a letter to the Inter-American Development Bank. It raises
objections from Senator Kasten and in a way about the Acre road project.

01:14:45.000 --> 01:14:49.999
Is this partly the result of protests from the Seringueiro\'s
(inaudible)? Yes, it is partly a result of environmental criticisms

01:14:50.000 --> 01:14:54.999
as well as indigenous
people\'s criticisms. Okay.

01:14:55.000 --> 01:14:59.999
Great, Smith. All right. After nearly
a decade of destruction in Amazonia,

01:15:00.000 --> 01:15:04.999
the letter he was carrying
contained two historic sentences.

01:15:05.000 --> 01:15:09.999
\"We cannot allow a repeat of the
devastation which occurred in Rondonia.

01:15:10.000 --> 01:15:14.999
For this reason we insist
that further work extending

01:15:15.000 --> 01:15:19.999
the BR 364 be terminated
until the bank can certify

01:15:20.000 --> 01:15:24.999
that the necessary environmental
components of the loan

01:15:25.000 --> 01:15:29.999
have been implemented.

01:15:30.000 --> 01:15:35.000
[music]

01:15:45.000 --> 01:15:53.000
[music]

01:17:00.000 --> 01:17:04.999
The Inter-American Development Bank

01:17:05.000 --> 01:17:09.999
was soon put under even greater pressure

01:17:10.000 --> 01:17:14.999
when the World Bank admitted its own
mistakes over the Polonoroeste road.

01:17:15.000 --> 01:17:19.999
Inevitably the bank has also stumbled.
For instance,

01:17:20.000 --> 01:17:24.999
more recent Brazilian project known as
Polonoroeste was a sobering example

01:17:25.000 --> 01:17:29.999
of an environmentally sound
effort which went wrong.

01:17:30.000 --> 01:17:34.999
The bank misread the human institutional and
physical realities of the jungle and the frontier.

01:17:35.000 --> 01:17:39.999
In some cases, the dynamic of the
frontier got out of control.

01:17:40.000 --> 01:17:44.999
Protective measures to shelter fragile land and tribal
people were included. They were not however carefully timed

01:17:45.000 --> 01:17:49.999
or adequately monitored.
Polonoroeste many lessons.

01:17:50.000 --> 01:17:54.999
First, we\'re creating a top
level environmental department

01:17:55.000 --> 01:17:59.999
to help set the direction of
bank policy, at the same time,

01:18:00.000 --> 01:18:04.999
new offices in each of the four
regional technical departments

01:18:05.000 --> 01:18:09.999
will take on a dual role, both as environmental
watchdog… Despite the World Bank\'s reforms,

01:18:10.000 --> 01:18:14.999
the Inter-American Development Bank has
still not complied with the Senate request

01:18:15.000 --> 01:18:20.000
to suspend payments on
the loan to our Acre.

01:18:25.000 --> 01:18:33.000
[sil.]